The Pentagon is developing unmanned drones that can be deployed from aircraft carriers, in an effort to tip the scales in the U.S. favor in dealing with the quickly-expanding Chinese military, according to an exclusive report by The Associated Press.
Vice Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, told the news agency that the unmanned drones would be used in Asia, playing an “integral role in our future operations in this region.” He did not mention China specifically, but China is the regional power and has the world’s second-largest military.
As of now, the drones are primarily used for land-based operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and to a small extent in Mexico.
“Chinese military modernization is the major long-term threat that the U.S. must prepare for in the Asia-Pacific region, and robotic vehicles—aerial and subsurface—are increasingly critical to countering that potential threat,” Patrick Cronin, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Center for New American Security, told AP.
Taiwanese officials are concerned about the fact that China has recently developed a new long-range ballistic missile called the DF-16 that has an even greater range than older Dong Feng missiles, according to a report in The Epoch Times several weeks ago.
The emergence of the new missile prompted Tsai Der-sheng, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau director general, to brief the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on March 16.
Tsai noted that China’s People’s Liberation Army has more than 1,400 of the missiles pointed in the direction of Taiwan.
Last fall, it was unveiled that China is also developing another advanced Dong Feng missile capable of taking down U.S. aircraft carriers and “represents the first post-Cold War capability that is both potentially capable of stopping our naval power projection and deliberately designed for that purpose,” Cronin said in a previous report.
Analysts say that the U.S. drones could be deployed on any of the dozen U.S. carriers around the world and may not be solely relegated to dealing with counteracting the Chinese military, AP noted.
