A few days ago, CCTV reported footage of China's new amphibious assault ship Hainan during training, including one sceneA batch of red unmanned towing vehicles have emerged, which are specifically designed to tow helicopters on the deck. Some American experts feel very uneasy after seeing this red car. They believe that China's progress now is too great, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, which has greatly surpassed the United States because the towing vehicles on American aircraft carriers have fallen far behind this red car.

So what is the origin of this 075 ship? Why are the towing vehicles on board more advanced than those on American aircraft carriers? As China's first large amphibious combat warship, this ship greatly enhances our country's amphibious combat capabilities. The first ship was launched in September 2019, and the second ship was also launched in April 2020. In April of this year, the Hainan ship, the first ship, officially joined the Southern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army. This large warship can carry about 30 helicopters, as well as multiple main battle tanks, armored vehicles, amphibious hovercrafts, and nearly 1000 members of the Marine Corps. It can cooperate with aircraft carrier formations and exert tremendous power in ocean operations. Since it can carry multiple helicopters, the existence of a tractor is indispensable. Despite the small size of the tractor, its cost is not cheap at all. A small one can cost tens of millions of yuanGe, and it's not something that can be made with money. Currently, only a few countries in the world, such as China, the United States, and Russia, can produce tractors. So why use this type of tractor? Can't we just let the plane pass by itself, or learn from India and use a tractor to pull the plane away?

This is certainly not feasible, otherwise our country would not have specifically developed such an unmanned tractor. Due to the need to dock many aircraft on the flight deck of large warships such as aircraft carriers, the seemingly large flight deck space is actually very small. It is very difficult for aircraft to move on warships, unlike on land where they can move freely. At this point, a tractor is needed to move these aircraft to the appropriate position. However, the tractor needs to meet the requirements of small size, high horsepower, the ability to pull, push, and rotate 360 degrees, as well as being able to adapt to the marine environment,wear and corrosion resistance. Combining these conditions together is a very difficult task, which is also an important reason for the high cost of tractors. Moreover, this type of tractor is still essential in modern navies. In the past, aircraft such as carrier based planes were smaller in size and weight due to technical reasons such as engines, so they could not be towed. However, nowadays, heavy carrier based planes and helicopters can weigh tens of tons and cannot pull anything. Only countries like India, which are "experienced",dare to directly use tractors to pull their own carrier based planes.

In fact, this is also a helpless move for India, because the United States has raised the price when selling aircraft carrier tractors, and India's aircraft carriers and American tractors are not matched. If India buys at a high price, it will be too unprofitable, so it has to use tractors to transport its own carrier based aircraft. And our country also knows that the United States cannot sell this essential thing to ChinaSimply put, China had to agree to many conditions, so it began the research and development of its own domestically produced tractor. Now, it has finally developed its own tractor, and the appearance of the unmanned tractor on the 075 represents that this unmanned tractor has completed relevant tests and can be officially put into use. In this way, using unmanned towing vehicles on new aircraft carriers in the future will not only be more efficient, but also save a lot of unnecessary personnel expenses. Compared with the manually driven towing vehicles on American aircraft carriers and the tractors in India as towing vehicles, it is undoubtedly a significant lead, which is also the reason why these American experts are so worried.

Source: Military of Strong Countries