Beijing Institute of Technology has made a big contribution! Once the war breaks out, China will have a massive number of temporary aircraft carriers and cruisers.
Recently, at a national defense technology exhibition, a set of seemingly unremarkable but strategically significant equipment combinations has attracted widespread attention: a modular electromagnetic catapult track vehicle with the "Beijing Institute of Technology" logo, and a model of an auxiliary cruiser named "Zhongda 79" were displayed side by side. More importantly, the track vehicle carried a new type of carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle verification aircraft.
Why is this important? Because modern naval warfare heavily relies on air power, and aircraft carriers as core platforms require long construction periods, high costs, and limited numbers. Even countries like the United States, which are naval powers, only have 11 active aircraft carriers.
In high-intensity conflicts, how to quickly expand the number of sea platforms capable of air transport has always been a strategic challenge. Thus, the concept of "temporary aircraft carriers" or "auxiliary cruisers" emerged — that is, using a large number of existing or rapidly reconfigurable civilian ships, such as roll-on/roll-off ships, large cargo ships, and research vessels, to install simple takeoff and landing systems and combat modules, enabling them to have basic air combat or fire support capabilities.
The modular electromagnetic catapult track vehicle displayed by the Beijing Institute of Technology is an attempt to solve this key technical bottleneck — how to land fixed-wing drones on temporary platforms. Particularly noteworthy is that in the on-site display, this auxiliary ship, the catapult track vehicle, and the carrier-based drone formed a closed loop: the drone was responsible for reconnaissance and search, transmitting target information back, which was then processed by the ship's system to guide attacks — this means that a single ship can complete the OODA (Observe-Orientation-Decide-Act) cycle without relying on support from a large fleet.
This capability, once scaled up, would have far-reaching implications. China has one of the largest merchant fleets in the world, with hundreds of roll-on/roll-off ships alone, many of which have straight decks that can be slightly modified to deploy catapult tracks and drones. If each could carry 4–8 surveillance and strike drones, it would quickly form dozens or even hundreds of distributed aviation strike nodes in the East China Sea, South China Sea, and even in distant waters.
This "swarm-style maritime force" may not be able to replace regular aircraft carrier battle groups, but in tasks such as area denial, anti-access, and maritime surveillance, it can create a decisive numerical advantage and tactical flexibility.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1853003450038283/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.