This Drone Carrier Could Rule the Seas—And China Might Be Building One Already, Expert ClaimsEuropean drone operations at sea are soon to spread, as Portugal prepares to launch Europe’s first drone carrier, the D. João II, later this year. Dutch shipbuilding conglomerate Damen is building the carrier for Portugal’s navy, Marinha Portuguesa. The Portuguese government describes the vessel as a “drone, land, and submarine carrier.”
João II is part of a family of Damen’s multi-purpose support ships, built for the specific purpose of fielding drones at sea. It can deploy all types of autonomous systems, including:
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or aircraft with no pilot or crew;
Unmanned surface vessels (USV), or aquatic vehicles that operate on the surface of the water without a crew; and
Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), or submersible vehicles that operate beneath the water without a crew
According to experts, seaborne drone power fielded on multipurpose vessels like João II opens new possibilities to deter, surveil, and strike adversaries—and could set a new standard for countries that, up until this point, have lacked the ability to project long-range firepower at sea. Specifically, vessels like João II would be appealing to nations seeking to gain more seapower, as only a few countries have aircraft carriers.
It’s certainly something that I think a lot of countries are going to experiment with in the future to see if it makes sense for them,” says Bruce Behrens, PhD, senior research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses, a federally-funded research center in the U.S. “It is a way to build a capability that they probably can’t do otherwise.”
“I’ve seen reports of such things being built by the Chinese already,” Behrens continues.
In recent years, China has been rapidly expanding its navy, putting pressure on the United States and its allies to also keep their foot on the gas, and a drone-specific carrier would only increase the heat.
The impending launch of João II follows the 2023 launch of Turkey’s TCG Anadolu, the world’s first dedicated drone carrier. Earlier this month, it deployed to the coast of Latvia in support of NATO’s Operation Eastern Sentry, which seeks to protect allied territory from Russian drone incursions.
The strength of these vessels is their capacity to store and launch a wide variety of unmanned systems. With a design resembling a miniature aircraft carrier, João II combines an expansive flight deck suitable for launching drones with a covered storage area, spanning more than 10,000 square feet for both fixed-wing and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones.
The vessel boasts over 9,000 square feet of storage capacity for maritime unmanned vessels. Designed using commercially available equipment, João II also has military communication and navigation technology installed aboard and features two lifting platforms to raise drones above decks.
Depending on the type of mission it’s being used for, the Portuguese Navy can transform the carrier within a week for different operations. It can transport 48 crew members, with additional space for up to 42 passengers.
So, would a dedicated drone carrier be a viable solution for the U.S. Navy to project maritime power as other nations begin to develop their own drone carriers?
In short: it may not be totally necessary. The “cousins” of João II already exist among the U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ships. The America-class landing helicopter assault (LHA) ship and the Wasp-class landing helicopter dock (LHD) both have capacity to launch and store vertical aircraft. These classes of ships also resemble scaled-down aircraft carriers, and are the largest ships used in the U.S. Navy’s expeditionary strike groups.
“These ships are already set up to support helicopters and vertical-launch aircraft, in this case the F-35B,” according to Steven Wills, PhD, a navalist for the Center for Maritime Security at the Navy League of the United States.
“The [U.S.] Navy tends to think of all its ships as being multi-mission like this,” he says. “I think as you see the Turks and the Portuguese as well developing a carrier that can launch fixed-wing drones, I think the Navy will pay attention to that.
But just because the U.S. is paying attention doesn’t mean it will follow suit—at least not directly, Wills explained.
“A lot of our friends and allies have led the way with development of different systems that then the U.S. Navy employs later, but maybe not in the same way,” Wills said.
The Navy appears more likely to modify existing vessels such as the America-class and the Wasps for drone use rather than construct dedicated drone carriers like João II. However, having a dedicated drone carrier would offer many possibilities in terms of launching reconnaissance drones or loitering munitions, Wills notes.
“You have to bring aviation with you to a sea battle or a sea contest of some kind,” he explains. “Any ability to take aviation to sea, manned or unmanned, I think is good because it offers you as a commander a lot of flexibility.”
Behrens says that the Navy would need to consider costs and existing capabilities before undertaking a dedicated drone carrier project.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a70503261/europe-drone-carriers-at-sea/
