Summary and Key Points: China's advancements in AI and satellite technology have led to claims that they can now track American aircraft carriers, a development that could pose significant threats to the US Navy. In June 2021, China reported successfully using an AI-equipped satellite to monitor the USS Harry S. Truman in real-time.
-This capability, if true, raises concerns about the vulnerability of the US carrier fleet, especially in the Indo-Pacific region where tensions are high.
-Aircraft carriers, crucial to US naval power, are expensive and resource-intensive. China's ability to track these carriers could deter the US from deploying them in conflict zones, given the risk and cost associated with their potential loss. This technological leap by China emphasizes the need for the US to adapt to emerging AI-enhanced military threats.
Are the Chinese capable of using satellites to track American aircraft carriers? According to China: yes – which could spell trouble for the US carrier fleet, should war erupt in the Indo-Pacific.
The aircraft carrier is the lynchpin of the US Navy. Costing billions and billions of dollars per unit and requiring several thousand sailors to operate, the modern supercarrier is a marvel of naval engineering, allowing the US to project airpower globally from a nuclear-powered platform that can operate for decades without refueling.
Naturally, given the resources invested in each aircraft carrier and the capabilities granted by the possession of each aircraft carrier, the thousand-foot-long flat-topped vessels make attractive targets for enemy forces.
Accordingly, China has been crafting technologies that may be capable of felling the mighty aircraft carrier, including hypersonic anti-ship missiles that the US does not yet have a defensive counter for and quick surface and sub-surface vessels that may be able to penetrate a Carrier Strike Group’s defensive perimeter.
Still, the US has always taken solace in the difficulties associated with finding, tracking, and ultimately targeting an aircraft carrier. The ocean is a vast, unbroken plane, with millions of square miles to hide within – an aircraft carrier measures just one-fifth of one mile – it’s the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Yet, China is boasting that they can in fact track American carriers – a discouraging development for a Navy hoping to project power throughout the Asian theater.
Xi’s government claimed, in June 2021, that they had used one of their AI-equipped “smart satellites” to track the USS Harry S. Truman off the coast of New York. According to China, the satellite successfully tracked the Truman, in real-time, offering up-to-the-second coordinates of the Nimitz-class carrier’s location.
Presumably, if the Chinese can track the Truman, they can track the other ten American aircraft carriers. And presumably, if the Chinese can track an aircraft carrier off the coast of Long Island, they can track an aircraft carrier a little closer to home, say, off the coast of Taiwan.
The AI used in China’s carrier-tracking satellites is indicative of the progress China has been making in AI development. The West will need to adapt to the AI-related military enhancements that the Chinese will enjoy as their AI technology improves, like carrier-tracking.
“Whereas before, China’s military had to analyze large quantities of data on the whereabouts of America’s carriers,” Brandon J. Weichert wrote.
But now, “China’s AI systems [are] able to sift through those reams of data so quickly and efficiently that the coordinates and movements of the American carrier were live streamed to Beijing’s naval war planners.”
The higher the likelihood that the Chinese can track and destroy an aircraft carrier, the less likely the US is to commit their aircraft carriers to any sort of conflict with China; the aircraft carrier is the single biggest congregation of resources – sailors, vessel, aircraft, nuclear-reactor – in the entire US military. US Warplanners, nor US taxpayers, will be inclined to risk such an expensive asset.
Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
All images are Creative Commons.
