The report by the People’s Liberation Army Navy (Chinese Navy) entitled “The US Navy’s Distributed Lethality Implementation Method” conducted by the Marine Design & Research Institute of China (MARIC) and according to a statement by the US Naval Institute (USNI) directs the attention of Chinese Navy Officers to its analysis and copying the US Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) class “Independent”.
Distributed lethality combines more powerful ships with innovative methods of employing them. For this reason, China considers that the construction of Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) based on modularity, their high speed to avoid torpedoes, as well as their low construction cost make it a very powerful tool in future naval battles that can operate autonomously or in formation with other surface naval ships.
Photo by the webiste www.navyrecognition.com
The “look” of the Chinese researchers turned to this type of LCS given the speed it had developed while firing a Harpoon missile in 2016. The Chinese answer to the distributed lethality fleet is an investment in improve sensors and maritime awareness. On the other hand, the Chinese are developing their own version of the Independence – class LCS the “trimaran” warship (by the China Shipbuilding trading Company).
The Chinese Navy already uses smaller trimaran ships for noncombat missions – training torpedo recovery, S & R, and oceanographic research.
The Chinese design includes a wider deck to operate more aircraft. It has a two-door hanger for helicopters and VTOL, unmanned aircraft systems. Trimarans can also reach higher speeds, due to the reduced drag of having three hulls instead of a single wider one.
