Chinese Stealth Unmanned Surface Vessel completes First Sea Trial

China's first stealth unmanned surface vessel (USV), completed its first autonomous sea trial which in future holds out the promise of new naval tactics such as distributed operations and swarm combat.
The sea trial took place in waters near Panzhi Island in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang Province on Tuesday and ended after three hours of data collection, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Thursday.
The vessel has a displacement of about 200 tons, a length of more than 40 meters and a trimaran design. The unmanned surface vessel has a top speed of more than 20 knots, can carry out tasks under sea state 5, or rough waves, and can sail safely under sea state 6, or very rough waves, the CCTV report said.
"The voyage results are as per expectations. Next, we will conduct collision avoidance tests and further examine the vessel's performance," Zou Long, the on-site leader of the project, was quoted by chinanews.com as saying.
The ship was launched on August 28, 2019 in Jiujiang, East China's Jiangxi Province, and sailed for 1,000 nautical miles in about 30 voyages in the Boyang Lake before arriving in Zhoushan in 2021, proving its initial navigational capability prior to the first sea trial, the report said.
A group of drone ships can be far away from each other and carry out distributed operations, meaning if one ship goes down, another will perform its functions. In addition, they can form a swarm to overwhelm enemies.
China has commenced building an even more advanced, large drone ship. On May 31, the No.716 Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corp started construction of China's most advanced large unmanned ship, which is characterized by its high speed, long endurance and a domestically developed propulsion system.