At the recently held MADEX2025 International Maritime Defense Exhibition in Busan, South Korea, South Koreas Hyundai Heavy Industries unveiled for the first time a conceptual design model of a new drone carrier called HCX-23 Plus.Compared with the Turkish Anadolu drone carrier, which was a half-baked aircraft carrier, the HCX-23 Plus launched by South Koreas Hyundai Heavy Industries is a brand-new solution designed entirely based on the needs of advanced drone maritime operations, and it adopts many unconventional designs.
It can be said that it represents to a certain extent the new trend in the development of future aircraft carriers, especially drone carriers.The double-deck design is the biggest feature of the new drone carrier HCX-23 Plus.Fully Meet the New Positioning of Unmanned System CombatThe original design of Turkeys Anadolu drone carrier was a large multi-purpose warship that combined the functions of a light aircraft carrier and an amphibious assault ship.
According to the exclusive name of its prototype, the Spanish Juan Carlos I, it is called a strategic force projection ship.
It was only because of the deterioration of relations between Turkey and the United States that the former could no longer purchase F-35B short-range/vertical take-off and landing stealth fighters from the latter that the Anadolu had to be transformed into a drone carrier.Moreover, according to the Turkish Navys conception, the Anadolu drone carrier will also carry Hurjet light carrier-based fighter/attack aircraft and various types of manned carrier-based helicopters.
Therefore, the Anadolu is not actually a pure drone carrier, but more accurately a hybrid carrier that carries both drones and manned aircraft.
However, unlike other countries aircraft carriers that can also carry drones, the Anadolu should be mainly based on drones in combat, with manned carrier-based aircraft as auxiliary.The design concept of the HCX-23 Plus drone carrier newly designed by South Koreas Hyundai Heavy Industries is completely different from that of the Turkish Anadolu.
The author even believes that the former has opened a new era for the development of drone carriers in the world.
The design positioning of the HCX-23 Plus drone carrier no longer considers the carrying and combat use requirements of manned carrier-based aircraft, but only considers the needs of unmanned carrier-based aircraft.
Therefore, the HCX-23 Plus only carries unmanned carrier-based aircraft, no longer manned carrier-based aircraft, and therefore no longer adopts the mixed mode similar to other countries aircraft carriers.
It is a very pure drone carrier.In addition to aircraft carriers, the new drone carrier HCX-23 Plus also carries unmanned boats and unmanned submarines.
It can be considered a multi-purpose unmanned combat ship with aviation as its main function.The biggest advantage of this is that it can significantly reduce the size and displacement of the drone carrier.
For example, the design displacement of the HCX-23 Plus drone carrier is only 15,000 tons.
However, since the ship layout, especially the hangar layout, can be designed completely according to the size and carrying requirements of the drone, the number and type of drones carried by the HCX-23 Plus drone carrier are not less than those of the Anadolu with a displacement of 27,000 tons, and even more than medium-sized aircraft carriers with larger tonnage.
This is the biggest advantage of design optimization.In addition, from the model of the HCX-23 Plus drone carrier released by Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea, it can be seen that there is a large tail hatch at the stern of the ship.
According to the information released by Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea, in addition to carrying a large number of drones to perform air combat missions, the HCX-23 Plus can also carry a variety of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines inside its hull, which can be delivered and recovered through the small dock at the stern and the tail hatch.
This makes the HCX-23 Plus a comprehensive platform for carrying and combating unmanned equipment at sea, forming a three-dimensional unmanned combat system in the air, on the surface, and underwater, and used in coordination with other surface warships and submarines, becoming a force multiplier for the entire fleet.New Design Concept Returns to Retro StyleIn terms of overall layout design, the HCX-23 Plus UAV carrier also follows an unconventional approach, and adopts a retro-style design such as a no-island and double-deck flight deck, which is contrary to tradition.In fact, many aircraft carriers modified or newly designed by the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and other countries in the early 20th century did not have an island installed.
This was because the tonnage and size of these early aircraft carriers were small, resulting in insufficient width of the flight deck.
From the perspective of carrier-based aircraft landing safety, aircraft carriers including the British Argus, the American Langley, and the Japanese Hosho and Ryujo all adopted a no-island design.
Later, with the increasing tonnage and size of aircraft carriers, the further optimization of the island design, and the urgent need for aircraft carrier combat command, the island became an essential design for aircraft carriers.The reason why the HCX-23 Plus drone carrier cancels the island is mainly due to several factors.
First, with the rapid development of drone technology, the take-off, landing and deck/hangar scheduling of unmanned carrier-based aircraft can be fully automated and unmanned to a large extent.
Therefore, the aviation command and deck scheduling functions of the traditional aircraft carrier island can be completely cancelled.
This is also one of the reasons why the HCX-23 Plus drone carrier can even cancel the optical landing system, which is a must-have equipment for traditional aircraft carriers.Some early aircraft carriers were not equipped with islandsSecondly, the elimination of the island can greatly improve the stealth capability of the HCX-23 Plus UAV carrier.
In fact, no matter how the traditional aircraft carrier island is reduced in size and volume, or how the multi-faceted stealth shape is adopted, it is protruding above the deck after all, and has the largest radar reflection cross-section.
Then, after the elimination of the island, the HCX-23 Plus UAV carrier will set the navigation bridge in the middle of the upper and lower flight decks, and the side of the hull adopts a further optimized inward tilt and polyhedron design, which can greatly reduce the overall radar reflection characteristics of the entire ship and achieve the most outstanding stealth performance.The double-deck flight deck of the HCX-23 Plus drone carrier is also very distinctive.
Its upper flight deck is mainly used for the landing of unmanned carrier-based aircraft, so it is equipped with a large elevator and two arresting cables.
After the unmanned carrier-based aircraft lands, it can descend to the lower deck through the elevator at the rear of the upper flight deck.
The lower deck is divided into two parts, the rear is a fully enclosed hangar, and the front is a take-off deck equipped with a short-range catapult.
There is also a lifting flame shield at the take-off point, which stands up when the jet unmanned carrier-based aircraft takes off to prevent the high-temperature exhaust gas of the jet engine from blowing directly into the hangar.In addition, there is a control room for ejection commanders on the right side of the catapult, where personnel can observe the ejection of unmanned carrier-based aircraft at any time through the porthole protruding above the deck.
Whats more interesting is that there is a very obvious angle between the central axis of the upper landing deck and the lower take-off deck.
If the unmanned carrier-based aircraft fails to land, it will rush out of the side and fall into the sea instead of hitting the lower take-off deck directly.
In addition to the upper and lower flight decks for fixed-wing unmanned carrier-based aircraft to take off and land, the HCX-23 Plus unmanned aircraft carrier also has a small sunken take-off and landing deck designed at the stern for vertical take-off and landing unmanned carrier-based aircraft.Double or even triple flight decks were also one of the designs adopted by many early aircraft carriers, such as the Japanese Akagi and Kaga, and the British Furious, Courageous, and Glorious.
However, this design was soon abandoned by subsequent newly designed aircraft carriers.South Korea has adjusted its aircraft carrier plan and may develop a drone carrier in the future.
The picture shows the South Korean Navys Dokdo amphibious assault ship conducting a takeoff test of the Mojave drone.The Future of the Worlds Drone Carrier DevelopmentIn addition to the HCX-23 Plus new drone carrier concept design launched by Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea, Hanwha Group of South Korea also showed a drone carrier design model called Ghost Commander for the first time.
However, compared with HCX-23 Plus, the Ghost Commander design is more sci-fi and not as good as the latter in terms of implementation.In addition, South Koreas Hyundai Heavy Industries also displayed a drone stealth frigate called HCX-23 that is used in conjunction with the HCX-23 Plus.
The HCX-23 is designed to have a displacement of more than 6,000 tons.
A high-energy laser weapon is installed on the main gun position, with a 48-unit vertical launch system at the rear.
There are two take-off and landing flight decks, one large and one small, at the rear of the hull, which are used for small vertical take-off and landing unmanned carrier-based aircraft and medium-sized unmanned carrier-based aircraft respectively.
Judging from the size of the hangar, the HCX-23 stealth frigate can only carry drones, but not traditional manned ship-borne helicopters.
Similar to the HCX-23 Plus, the HCX-23 stealth frigate can also carry and retract unmanned boats and unmanned submarines.Regardless of the realization capability, South Korean military enterprises always come up with some incredible new generation weapon equipment design schemes.
Then, judging from the new generation warship design schemes based on unmanned equipment displayed at the MADEX2025 International Maritime Defense Exhibition, the author believes that the future development of the worlds drone aircraft carriers will have a very broad prospect.
Its main trends include: the overall tonnage is controlled within 6,000 tons to 15,000 tons, the full stealth design is adopted, the design is completely centered on the combat use requirements of the unmanned system, and the unmanned combat system that realizes air-sea integration is realized.
In traditional ship formations and aircraft carrier battle groups, only a few such unmanned combat system delivery ships are needed to greatly enhance the combat capability of the entire fleet.Source: Phoenix New Media