This month, multiple media outlets reported that China appears to be testing a new way to rapidly convert civilian cargo ships into drone-launch platforms, according to recent imagery and analysis. Photos emerging since late December show a Chinese medium cargo vessel, Zhongda 79, reconfigured to carry a modular, truck-mounted electromagnetic catapult system capable of launching large fixed-wing combat drones, with the activity centered at Shanghai’s Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard.
The system consists of multiple heavy trucks locked together to form a scalable launch track, potentially allowing drones weighing up to two tons to be launched without a traditional runway, either from land or from flat-decked merchant ships.
