China's artificial intelligence unmanned boats have attracted much attention. How far is the er

[Global Times reporter Ma Jun Liu Yanzun Global Times Special reporter Chen Yang] Recently, the news of the success of Chinese unmanned boats has attracted the intensive attention of foreign media. At the same time, the US Navy is also ambitious to build up to 150 various types Unmanned fleet composed of ships. Why do countries have developed unmanned ships, and how far is the unmanned naval era from reality?

China's artificial intelligence unmanned boat first carrier attracted attention

China's first nationwide -produced 100 -ton unmanned boat (pictured on the right) recently completed the first maritime navigation test in the Zhoushan waters of Zhejiang. Although it is still in the testing stage, foreign media have been hyped that the unmanned boat may bring significant changes to the Chinese Navy's combat model.

According to reports, the unmanned boat in China uses a triode type, with a displacement of about 200 tons and a maximum speed of more than 20 sections. It can work normally at level 5 and sail at level 6. The unmanned boat project has begun to develop work since the end of 2015. The project team has overcome key technologies such as high -quality boat design technology, hosting speed and low voltage hybrid hybrid power technology, comprehensive perception system integrated mast technology, and independent navigation control technology. The boat was successfully launched in Jiujiang, Jiangxi on August 28, 2019, and the navigation test of nearly 30 voyages and a range of more than 1,000 nautical miles in Poyang Lake showed that various indicators have basically reached design parameters, good control and wave resistance, initial initially, initial initially, initially With the ability to navigate. The unmanned boat arrived in the Zhoushan waters in October 2021. After more than half a year of careful preparation, the first self -navigation test was conducted in the open sea area. Zou Long, the person in charge of the project, revealed, "From the perspective of the trial, it is almost the same as our expected goals. In the next step, we will also do the test of the driverless boat to test the performance of the boat." Unmanned ships are only navigation from relatively wide open waters. There is still a long way to go to meet the requirements of high -speed self -navigation.

The Israeli "Jerusalem Post" said on the 12th that the 200 -ton unmanned boat was similar to the mixture of the American "Sea Hunter" unmanned boat and the "Jumwalt" class destroyer. Complete the first voyage of 3 hours. Its most significant feature is relying on artificial intelligence and has independent navigation capabilities. "The Chinese manufacturer of the boat did not disclose the specific purpose, but it aims to achieve the goals of the long sea cruise, low noise, intelligence, stealth, and self -driving and autonomous sailing."

India's "Eurasian Times" said on the 11th that China's newly -launched unmanned boat may pave the way for the Chinese Navy's future new naval tactics such as distributed operations and cluster operations. It is reported that although the outside world believes that Chinese unmanned boats are very similar to the US Navy's "sea hunter", they all use the design and independent navigation capabilities. However, there are some subtle structural differences to help distinguish between the two: Chinese boats use waves of rigs, tilt deck rooms, and cone mast design. The invisible effect is better, and the design of "sea hunter" is more traditional.

The US "power" website believes that the design mission of the unmanned boat from the United States "Maritime Hunter" can guess the future goal of this Chinese unmanned boat. The "Maritime Hunter" was originally designed by hunting enemy submarines. As the U.S. Navy has achieved great success on its tests, the Pentagon believes that it can perform richer tasks, including intelligence collection, some people-no one-no one The collaboration of the platform and the weapon launch platform as a cutting -edge deployment.

Foreign media generally linked the unmanned boat with other unmanned ships in China recently. The "Dynamic" website specifically mentioned in the report that China, which was launching in China not long ago: "Zhuhai Cloud" science ship: "This large ship with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons can carry a large number of drones, unmanned surface boats and unmanned submariners. Although it is used in marine research, it is also very useful in the military field. It can act as a command hub for various unmanned weapons and surveillance systems. "France 24 TV states that the" Zhuhai Cloud "is the world's first ship Unmanned aircraft carriers using artificial intelligence in open waters. "This newly launched unmanned aircraft carrier clearly stated that Beijing is anxious to deploy a group of unmanned equipment to promote its military hegemony in the Pacific."

What is the unmanned fleet planned in the United States

The news of the success of China's unmanned boat navigation has received so much attention because the unmanned surface ships and unmanned submariners who can navigate independently are becoming a key development direction for navies in various countries today. The U.S. Navy Society website said that during the upcoming "Pacific-20122" multi-country joint exercises, the US Navy will dispatch all four unmanned surface ships to test their combat capabilities with the fleet. "All four unmanned surface ships will be scattered and will cooperate with different special force commanders in the" Pacific Rim "exercise to exercise our abilities from the perspective of command and control and effective loads."

It is reported that the U.S. Navy unmanned ships participating in the "Pacific Rim Pacific-20122" exercise include the "Sea Hunter", the "Sea Eagle" anti-submarine patrol boat, and the "Rangers" and "Nomads" of the "Ghost Fleet Outlord" program. "No. Among them, the "Sea Hunter" is the earliest unmanned surface ship specially designed by the U.S. Navy. It is 40 meters long and the displacement is 140 tons. The maximum speed can reach 27 knots (about 50 kilometers per hour). Design and construction. When delivering the U.S. Navy in 2018, it was called "the world's largest unmanned ship." According to reports, the "Maritime Hunter" has the ability to navigate and avoid obstacles on the ocean, which can be sailed for 60-90 days in a row. With the anti-submarine device on the boat, it can continue to track underwater submarines, and with other people with other people The ship combat combat. In 2019, the "Maritime Hunter" became the first unmanned ship from San Diego to the Hawaiian Pearl Harbor. The US Navy was quite satisfied with it and approved the construction of its improved "sea eagle". It is said that the latter has upgraded the electrical system and equipped with a modular weapon system and a test operator control station, which can easily perform a variety of combat tasks such as anti -ship, anti -submarine or reconnaissance through modification. In addition, the U.S. Navy is promoting a highly confidential "Ghost Fleet Outlord" plan. The plan was divided into two stages, and some related details were disclosed until the second stage of October 2019. At present, according to public information, the U.S. Navy converted the two commercial fast supply vessels into unmanned surface boats in the first stage, named the "Rangers" and "Nomad", and it was assumed to be subsequent trials. In the second stage, the two unmanned boats completed their navigation from the Gulf of Mexico to the West Coast of the United States in June 2020 and June 2021, with more than 7,000 kilometers, of which 98%of them were autonomous driving. In 2021, the U.S. Navy also released a video with the "Rangers" equipped with a modular vertical launch system launched the "Standard-6" air defense missile, showing that the U.S. military unmanned boat has broken through the early independent navigation technology verification stage and entered a deeper level. Distributed combat concepts cooperated with someone fleet.

The ambitious ambitions of the U.S. Navy in unmanned ships are not limited to these four unmanned surface boats. According to the U.S. Navy Society website, General Michael Gil Dyeing of the United States Navy recently revealed that the future US Navy fleet will consist of 513 ships, including 363 people's combat ships and 150 unmanned ships. The latter includes unmanned surface ships and large unmanned submarines. On April 28, the U.S. Navy's first "killer whale" super -large unmanned submarine in the U.S. Navy held a launching ceremony and started underwater testing. It also does not need artificial intervention at all. It can be sailed for several consecutive months. In the future, high -risk tasks such as mines are set up in enemy ports and even set up water mines in enemy ports.

In addition to the United States and China, other countries are also accelerating the development of unmanned ships. "New India Express" said on the 11th that the Indian Ministry of Defense issued a letter of intent to invite the Indian Industry and Defense Research and Development Organization to jointly design and develop underwater navigators in early June. According to the plan, the Indian Navy's unmanned submersibles will first be used for underwater surveillance and intelligence collection, but the ultimate goal is to perform military strikes and joint combat missions.

Unmanned ships are facing expectations and challenges at the same time

Why do countries focus on the development of future naval development to unmanned ships? An anonymous military expert told the Global Times reporter that the application prospects of unmanned boats in the military field are broad. First of all, as the common advantage of unmanned equipment, unmanned boats can perform tasks under the premise that the operators' casualties are not needed.

Second, unmanned boats with high -stealth, low noise, high -quality navigation, and comprehensive situation perception, after equipping the corresponding weapon and equipment, are very suitable for the tasks such as reconnaissance, air defense, anti -submarine, and anti -ship. Because the unmanned boats that can be sailed under high -sea conditions, the unmanned boats with this design can not only carry out offshore patrols, but also go out of the sea with someone.

Third, the cost of unmanned boats is low compared to large -scale ships. Once the technology is mature, it is suitable for large -scale construction.

Fourth, the emergence of unmanned boats may change the rules of the future naval battle, and a large number of new tactics are expected to be born. For example, a large number of unmanned boats can perform distributed operations, so that the opponents can lose this, and they can also perform maritime bee colony -style operations to win with quantitatives.

In particular, it is worth mentioning that in recent years, the U.S. Navy has vigorously developed the concept of "distributed combat", emphasizing that "the combat power is decentralized and deployed in the broad space, multiple combat areas, and various types of carriers to obtain the combat capabilities for controlling the need for the ocean." Essence The U.S. Navy believes that with China's increasing anti -ship capabilities in the Western Pacific region, the US Navy must avoid the core assets such as aircraft carriers such as one pot. The distributed combat is a larger and larger firepower configuration through decentralized deployment of small -scale formations. Because the U.S. Navy is dominated by expensive large and medium -sized ships, it is impossible to meet the requirements of the number of distributed operations, and the unmanned boat meets the needs of the US Navy in many aspects such as prices, quantities and risks. direction.

Shi Hong, editor -in -chief of the "Carrier Weapon" magazine, said in an interview with the Global Times reporter on the 13th that although the future prospects are broad, unmanned ships are still in the primary stage, and there is still a long distance from actual combat. He said that, whether China or the United States is an unmanned boat, one common feature is that the tonnage is small, so that they use the design of the three -body ship to resist the influence of the waves on such small ships. Documented by tonnage, it also caused these small unmanned boats to be equipped with sensors such as radars with a long -distance detection distance, and it is difficult to obtain key information by themselves, which has great restrictions on its actual operation. Shi Hong believes that the reason why countries do not build a larger tonnage self -owned unmanned ship are not from the ship itself, but the supporting artificial intelligence technology is not mature enough. Taking the basic self -obstacle avoidance function as an example, "the sea environment is quite complicated. Facing the ship or floating objects in front, human crew can judge its risks in combination with the surrounding environment and experience, while artificial intelligence -controlled ships can only be simply followed by 'identification according to' identification -Setarly 'logical processing. "Some US media questioned that there are only a few unmanned ship models in the US Navy in the United States Navy. The tonnage is generally small and has no shape, which is difficult to replace the mission of large surface ships.