Semi-submersible Chinese arsenal ship

[skyrover]

Looks like our friends over in China have been busy coming up with something a bit radical, presumably to overwhelm the defensive firepower of a US carrier croup.

Such a ship would be very hard to defend against.

https://www.eastpendulum.com/la-chine-fait-renaitr...

[Du1point8]

how would it be any harder than a sub to defend against.

It seems to have neither the clear outright advantage of either a sub nor a boat or am I missing something that a fast attack torpedo boat or mine layer would not scupper?

[skyrover]

Hard to hit/small radar signature and massively more firepower than a conventional submarine yet much cheaper/faster to build

[Evanivitch]

skyrover said:

Hard to hit/small radar signature and massively more firepower than a conventional submarine yet much cheaper/faster to build

Where is any of that stated?

I struggle to believe something that is such a compromise doesn't have a hugely compromised acoustic signature.

Also, what firepower does it have? It's also likely to suffer hugely in manoueverabiliy because again, it's a big compromise. And unless you can evade the defensive suite of a carrier group then you're good for nothing.

[skyrover]

I phrased it wrongly.

It will be inferior in comparison with a conventional submarine when it comes to acoustic signature... however it will be significantly harder to target from the surface... similar to how the US has focused on stealth technology with it's latest zumwalt destroyers.

Submarines can not re-arm at sea, nor can they carry a significant offensive payload when you consider the quantity of defensive measures a US carrier group has at it's disposal.

So the Chinese answer seems to be a platform which can survive long enough to throw an enormous barrage and overwhelm by sheer force of numbers anything the adversary can try to defend with.

[skyrover]

More concept art

[Du1point8]

the concept art looks suspiciously like a sub in the last picture.

[DMN]

The US Navy has arsenal subs for some time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_missile_subma...

They just convert old SSBN (Trident subs) into them. Replacing each Trident missle with seven Tomahawk missles.

[anonymous-user]

skyrover said:

and massively more firepower than a conventional submarine yet much cheaper/faster to build

Not with all the holes required in the hull that will have to be sealed.......