China seeks a strategic advantage in underwater drone technology. While the surface navy is playing catch-up by emulating the still more powerful U.S. Navy, in the underwater realm China is investing more. In particular it is developing extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicles (XLUUVs) more quickly than other navies. The world has largely been oblivious to this, but a major military parade in Beijing will change this. China’s XLUUVs have arrived. China will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of Second Sino-Japanese War with a grand military parade in Beijing on September 3. A similarly large parade marked the 70th university in 2015. The Chinese Ministry of Defence has already claimed that the parade will “display improved weapons, equipment”. Now images of rehearsals, shared on Chinese social media, have revealed that at least two types of extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicles (XLUUVs) will be among the new systems. Naval News has been following the progress of China’s ambitious XLUUV program since 2022, and several types have been reported first here. Yet these two new systems will be fresh and it will be the first time that they have been seen in public. It likely reflects the winners in China’s extensive trials program. The new XLUUVs are approximately 18-20 meters long and are generally torpedo-like, with pump jet propulsion. This makes then similar in overall size and shape to the Russian Poseidon nuclear-armed nuclear-powered torpedo. It is however too much of a leap to connect the two types at this stage. While there has been commentary on nuclear-propulsion for torpedo-like weapons in Chinese media and academic circles, these XLUUVs better match types already observed being tested in China. The country’s Navy (PLAN) has the largest XLUUV program of any nation with at least 5 types in the water for several years.

Full report : What The World Is About To Learn About China’s Extra-Large Underwater Drones.