Recently, a netizen captured a cargo ship with an unusual appearance at a domestic port, which quickly attracted widespread attention from military observers both domestically and internationally.

From the photos shared online, it can be seen that this cargo ship is equipped with five rows and three columns of container-type vertical launch units on its deck — according to the calculation of four launch tubes per group, this cargo ship has a total of 60 vertical launch units.

The timing of this ship's appearance is very delicate

Additionally, a phased array radar is erected on the containers in the middle of the cargo ship, while a Type 1130 close-in weapon system and a Type 726 countermeasure launcher are installed on the containers at the bow, together forming a unique configuration integrating detection, strike, and defense capabilities.

Regarding the true nature of this "armed cargo ship," current analyses mainly present two different viewpoints:

One view is that, based on the words "the China National Oceanic Revival and Human Oceanic Community of Shared Future Plan" painted on the containers, this "armed cargo ship" is merely a film prop rather than actual combat equipment;

Radar and close-in weapon system

The other view is that this "armed cargo ship" is a product of China's exploration of anti-commerce warfare or asymmetric maritime combat capabilities, or perhaps a certain type of technical verification platform.

"Anti-commerce warfare" refers to countering enemy operations aimed at disrupting our maritime supply lines. Currently, China has the largest merchant fleet and strongest shipbuilding capacity in the world, and ensuring the safety of long maritime supply lines has become crucial in potential conflicts such as in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.

In recent years, Chinese defense enterprises have introduced various container-based weapon systems, and related technological accumulations have laid the foundation for such explorations.

The "armed cargo ship" exposed this time is clearly a modified concept utilizing a commercial ship platform, relying on system data link support, to provide low-cost, distributed firepower delivery and air defense barriers in forward areas, in response to enemy commerce warfare against our maritime supply lines.

Container missile concepts exist in both China and the United States

In fact, the idea of "converting cargo ships into warships" is not a new concept.

Many years ago, American think tanks had already discussed similar concepts, that is, facing China's growing advantage in shipbuilding capacity and the number of vessels, the U.S. Navy would face a shortage of main ships in so-called "Sino-U.S. high-level conflicts."

Therefore, these American think tanks suggested that once a military conflict breaks out between the U.S. and China, the U.S. should mobilize merchant ships within its sphere of influence, by adding container-style missiles or vertical launch systems, radars, and communication modules, quickly converting them into "unmanned temporary armories" or missile launch platforms with some combat capabilities.

In 2019, an American think tank publicly advocated for "converting merchant ships into warships"

Theoretically, these platforms could receive target information from other ships, aircraft, or satellites under the support of the U.S. military's data link and combat network, and be guided by other professional nodes, thus forming a distributed, low-cost, hard-to-trace saturation attack capability across vast seas.

This concept of American think tanks aims to compensate for the gap between the U.S. Navy's shipbuilding capacity and China's, and also tries to use the inherent civilian appearance of merchant ships and their global navigability to achieve covert deployment and surprise attacks of combat forces.

Certainly, some may mention the restrictions of international law, but has the U.S. ever cared about international law?

In February this year, a paper from the U.S. Naval Institute again proposed a similar view

In February this year, a paper from the U.S. Naval Institute suggested that since the U.S. Navy cannot achieve the goal of building 380 ships in a short period, the number of ships deployed at the front is also insufficient to win a conflict within the range of the People's Liberation Army's anti-ship missiles, so it would be better to "combine new weapon-carrying systems with relatively cheap commercial ships" to "build missile merchant ships."

Moreover, the limitations of international law represented by the Hague Convention VII in this regard actually have some gray areas and ambiguities.

On the other hand, the Hague Convention VII was formulated in 1907, but during World War II, Britain and the United States still converted merchant ships into armed cruisers or auxiliary cruisers.

Therefore, due to the ambiguity and weak constraints of international law on "converting merchant ships into warships," how countries balance compliance with international norms and national security will certainly become a key variable in future maritime power competition.



Original: toutiao.com/article/7588095668007322146/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.