China's New Drone Mothership Could Change Undersea Warfare

Militarized combat drones have existed for decades, and conflicts such as the Russo-Ukrainian War show how far the technology has come. Modern combat drones fly, walk, drive, float, and submerge, and the latter is proving to be big business — not just in the West, but also in the People's Republic of China. The nation has rapidly developed its military drone capabilities in recent years and, if satellite imagery is to be believed, might be building an underwater drone mothership that could change undersea warfare forever.

China already has an airborne drone mothership, and this would appear to be the undersea equivalent, launching all manner of drone submarines, also known as uncrewed underwater vessels (UUVs). This potential drone mothership could deploy Extra-Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles (XLUUVs), a fast-growing category of UUVs generally defined as being between 20 and 82 feet long. 

China has already unveiled two operational XLUUVs at the 2025 Victory Parade, both measuring between 59 and 66 feet long, and has allegedly been testing XLUUVs twice that length. A Chinese drone mothership capable of deploying XLUUVs such as these could reshape naval warfare, leading to an underwater drone arms race as nations scramble to deploy their own drones. While details remain scant, what little the West does know suggests that China is leading the way on XLUUVs and possibly drone motherships as well.

Because China isn't in the habit of handing out dossiers explaining its military technology to the press, experts in the West have had to pore over satellite imagery to determine what China is building. In early September 2026, images began appearing online showing a vessel being constructed in a 1,115-foot-class dry dock. The photos show a roughly 656-foot-long vessel with a 98-foot-wide beam. It also appears to have a multi-layer deck structure with ramps seen on car carriers and similar ships.

Pole-like structures are arranged along the vessel's upper hull, though it's unclear what they're for as of this writing. There appears to be a large hangar forward of the well-deck, which could potentially house four XLUUVs. The ship has a similar design to an undersea research submersible — much like the ill-fated OceanGate Titan — that China previously revealed in 2025, though it's significantly larger and has an internal hangar instead of stowing a submersible on an open deck. 

Based on these features, observers are quite confident that China is building an XLUUV mothership. Such a vessel could move to an area and deploy its XLUUVs for missions such as laying mines, surveillance, or carrying out attacks. It could then recover the drones and perform maintenance as needed, keeping the drones in operation for as long as possible in a forward-deployed area like an enemy coastline.