The US military has brought in five major defense giants to fully develop the "Eagle Eye" for the aircraft carrier.

The US Navy is really in a rush this time, bringing in five major defense contractors—General Atomics, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Anduril—to fully develop unmanned combat aircraft for aircraft carriers. In short, it's because they are forced to change due to China's increasingly powerful missile range and outdated carrier-based aircraft.

Now the Western Pacific is no longer a backyard where the US military can freely roam. The DF-21D and DF-26 anti-ship ballistic missiles, plus the YJ-21 hypersonic missile, have long ranges and high precision, so the US aircraft carriers need to stay more than 1800 kilometers away to be relatively safe.

However, the F/A-18 and F-35C have short legs, cannot fly that far, and need aerial refueling, which is inefficient and takes up deck space. Meanwhile, China's own carrier aviation isn't standing still either; the J-35 stealth fighter with the KJ-600 early warning aircraft is constantly improving in strength.

Therefore, the US military is pushing hard on the Unmanned Combat Aircraft (UCAV) program. These drones can not only perform reconnaissance, jamming, and strikes, but also operate in conjunction with manned aircraft. In the future, they may even account for as much as 40% of the carrier air wing.

Modular design is a highlight. The same aircraft can be used for reconnaissance one time and then carry weapons for another, offering high cost-effectiveness and flexibility. The MQ-25 unmanned refueling aircraft also acts as a great assistant, freeing up manned aircraft from the tedious task of refueling.

But this path is not easy. The technical barriers for drones to take off and land on an aircraft carrier and for deck scheduling are extremely high. Whether the data link can resist interference in a complex electromagnetic environment is still a problem. The artificial intelligence command system needs to be reliable enough for commanders to trust, and this trust cannot be built in a day. Moreover, Congress is tightening the budget, and the Navy tends to purchase cheaper, disposable drones rather than expensive premium ones.

In the long run, the US military has already started thinking about the concept of a "drone carrier"—using low-cost, lightly equipped auxiliary ships to carry a large number of drones, operating together with traditional aircraft carriers. This idea is quite practical, as it relieves the shortage of main aircraft carriers and enhances operational flexibility while spreading risk.

At the end of the day, this transformation of the US Navy is not just a technological upgrade, but also a strategic adjustment: how to maintain the deterrent power of the aircraft carrier in the face of the missile range advantage? Unmanned, distributed, and networked operations may be what they believe is the way forward. However, whether they can form combat effectiveness on schedule will depend on technological breakthroughs, budget allocation, and most importantly—whether they can efficiently cope with a real high-intensity confrontation.

Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1843029698542858/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.