China's Unmanned Sea Vessels

Military and Civilian Platforms for South China Sea and Brown/Green Waters

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4 NOVEMBER 2022

China's Unmanned Sea Vessels

Military and Civilian Platforms for South China Sea and Brown/Green Waters

By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德

TAIPEI - Over the past 20 years, I have attended numerous defense expos in Asia, including China, and collected a variety of brochures on China’s efforts to produce unmanned maritime surface and underwater vessels. Most of these are small vehicles designed for harbor protection and brown navy (riverine) patrols, but others have green navy capabilities.

Given China’s domination of the South China Sea (SCS) islands, these vehicles make for force multipliers for the Coast Guard and the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

There is also interest, via the SCS, in seaplanes/amphibious aircraft and aerostats/airships; please consult: Chinese Seaplanes, Amphibious Aircraft and Aerostats/Airships. There are also numerous books on Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles, both fixed wing (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) and rotary (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) that have SCS applications. My book on Chinese submarines and underwater vehicles includes data on the Fishbot bionic underwater robot.

The below brochures and documents are for researchers, as they are difficult to locate today even for the practiced search engine ace.

Also consult my book: Modern Chinese Patrol Boats and China’s Unmanned Sea Vessels.

This page has been keyworded for easier use. Users are permitted to capture the photographs for use in their PowerPoints or other research. Please credit China In Arms in your footnote/endnote/bibliography.

CLICK TO ENLARGE BELOW BROCHURES:

2018 Defence Services Asia (DSA) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

PROOF OF ATTENDANCE:

CETC International Co., Ltd. (CETC = China Electronics Technology Group Corporation).

CETC - L30 Hydro-Fire Rescue Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV):

ABOVE: Keywords - CETC; China Electronics Technology Group Corp; 2018 DSA; Rescue, Satellite, Depot Ship, Monitoring Center, Command Station, Synergistic Fight, Manned, Water Cannon, Real Time Communication, Autopilot.

CETC - M40A Multifunctional USV:

ABOVE: Keywords - CETC; China Electronics Technology Group Corp; 2018 DSA; Survey, Topography, Geomorphic Exploration, Underwater Construction, Pipeline, Water Quality, Hydrographic Survery, Water Sampling, Xi Sha, Thousand Islet Lake, Anchorage Ground Survey, Shenzhen Bay River, Single Beam Echo Sounder, Multibeam Echo Sounder, ADCP = acoustic Doppler current profilers, Sontech M9/S5, RDI (RD Instruments) Rujiang, Linquest, Nortek, Side Scan Sonar, Forward Looking Sonar, Online Multi-Parameter, Water Quality Instrument, Odom Echotrac CV200/CV100, Haiyang HY1601/1602, South SDE-18, Reson T20, Odom MBI/MB2, Beijing Lanchuang Shark S450U, BlueView M-450, Kongsberg M3, HACH DS4/MS5, YSI EXO series, Sailhero XHFP/XHMP.

ABOVE: Keywords - Sea State, SS-2, Survive SS-4; CETC; China Electronics Technology Group Corp; 2018 DSA.

M75 High Speed Search and Rescue Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV):

ABOVE: Keywords - CETC; China Electronics Technology Group Corp; 2018 DSA; Paradrop, Search and Rescue, Criminal Investigation, Crime, Investigation, Evidence Colleciton, Intercept, Security, Police, fiberglass, carbon fiber, Kevlar, diesel, Sea State, SS-4, defense, military, intercept.

ABOVE: Keywords - CETC; China Electronics Technology Group Corp; 2018 DSA; Survival Equipment, Ring, First Aid.

CETC - M80B Exploration (USV):

ABOVE: Keywords - CETC; China Electronics Technology Group Corp; 2018 DSA; Topographic Survey, Topography, Geomorphic Exploration, Underwater Construction, Pipeline, Water Quality, Hydrographic Survey, Water Sampling, Trimaran Hull, Fin Stabilizer, Aluminum, Sea State, SS-3, Survive SS-5, 20-foot container.

POLY Technologies.

Poly Tech - NEZHA-1 Unmanned Surface Vehicle (Chinese; FYI: Nezha is the name of a Chinese guardian/protection deity:

ABOVE: Keywords - Poly Technologies; 2018 DSA; Propeller, Twin LvWan Surface Propellers, Twin Seatek 850 Engines. NOTE: There is confusion over the relationship of China-based Poly Defence and the Singapore-based PIO-SHIP Design and System Integrate Ptd. Ltd. from the 2015 IMDEX. According to a now blurred note I made on the brochure the boat is actually built in Shanghai. Particularly over the “High Speed Trimaran” (seen with a leopard running under it) dubbed the “Long Yang” featured not just in both company’s brochures, but also in a Poly Defence brochure from the 2014 IMDEX in Part 2/2 of this series and as an unmanned Nezha-1 in several Poly brochures during the 2018 DSA. This could be an attempt by Poly to create interest in the commercial sector outside the military market or it could be an attempt to create investment outside of China in the program. This is not the first time Chinese defense products have appeared in identical brochures for different companies, but for myself, it was odd that it appeared with a Singapore-based company. Normally they split the produce between two different Chinese-based companies or in the rare circumstance it might be Hong Kong. Often the brochures will have a different name for the produce, but the brochure’s technical details and photographs are exactly the same. There is probably no nefarious intent in this arrangement, but the confusion remains. FYI: Nezha is the name of a Chinese guardian/protection deity.

Poly Tech - DOLPHIN-1 Unmanned Surface Vehicle (Chinese):