WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF
Drones are part of the future of warfare, and China’s cross-modal submarine launched drones that can transition between water and air travel are way ahead of US capabilities.
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The US military is reportedly considering a tactic that involves deploying a submarine near the Chinese coast to release a large number of drones from under the water – as I first reported on years ago when Lockheed Martin announced their first autonomous Kill Chain system.
These drones would then form a swarm in the air and launch surprise attacks on the People’s Liberation Army fleet during any potential attempt to land in Taiwan, thereby reducing the need for US ships to get too close to the combat zone and risk being hit.
But there’s a twist: China has already turned this idea into reality, and test flights suggest its drones could accomplish much more than the Pentagon has envisioned for its own.
With help from China’s unmatched drone production chain, researchers with the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU) and the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre (CARDC) have developed the world’s first drone that can be launched by a submarine from the water, loop repeatedly between the sea and the sky, and eventually find its way back to the sub.
With a unique foldable wing design, the drone can “move across water-air media multiple times in a single journey,” thus significantly improving its concealment and survival abilities, the project team, led by NWPU associate professor Dong Changyin, wrote in a peer-reviewed paper published in Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica, a journal run by the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
The drone has been named Feiyi by Dong’s team. In Chinese, fei means “fly”, while the character yi dates back more than 3,000 years and was used to describe the scene of a water bird spreading its wings and preparing to take off from the surface.
“It combines the advantages of efficient underwater navigation and high agility in the air,” Dong’s team wrote. “There will be great application potential in military fields such as marine reconnaissance, surveillance, strike and attack.”
By contrast, the drones planned to be used by the US military need to be transported to the surface in a torpedo-like tube and have no mobility under water. Then, after leaving the sea, they must stay in the air, so they are more susceptible to attack.
These disposable drones can only self-destruct or launch suicidal attacks after completing their reconnaissance missions. Meanwhile Feiyi, according to Dong’s team’s analysis, could outnumber such opponents in future marine battlefields due to its higher survival rate.
Feiyi’s underwater navigation abilities are particularly impressive, with its travel efficiency surpassing that of most existing Cross Modal drones. This is mainly because its four pairs of rotating blades for flight can flip and fold like human arms, allowing the irregular blade surfaces to cling tightly to the fuselage, thereby greatly reducing water resistance.
Its tail-mounted, underwater-specific propellers provide powerful propulsion and steering.
On reaching the surface, Feiyi can maintain an upright posture in rough waves, spread its four arms, and then soar into the air.
After landing back on the water, its wings fold and it can then submerge in just five seconds.
The drone can carry reconnaissance, communication or other functional modules, and with the support of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, it can autonomously complete “certain missions with specific requirements,” Dong’s team wrote.
NWPU and CARDC are both leading defence research and development powerhouses in China, involved in the development of cutting-edge weapons such as hypersonic vehicles.
According to publicly available information, China is developing a wide range of cross-media weapons, including a variant that uses solid-fuel ramjet engines to achieve high-speed cruising both over and under the water, and war game simulations suggest existing defence technology cannot stop such weapons.
