# China launches second underwater drone ‘mothership’ as it builds out undersea fleet

*Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 10:06 PM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-10-20T22:06:27.016Z (2h ago)
**Category**: geopolitics | **Region**: Global
**Importance**: 8/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/21082.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: China has launched its second XXLUUV underwater drone mothership, a vessel described as able to carry and service multiple large unmanned undersea vehicles, echoing historical submarine tenders such as Japan’s Taigei and Jingei classes.

China has added a second large platform to support its growing fleet of underwater drones.

Open-source imagery and reporting indicate that the country has launched its second XXLUUV, described as an underwater drone mothership that can carry and service multiple very large unmanned undersea vehicles. Commentators have compared its role to earlier submarine support ships like Japan’s Taigei and Jingei classes, which acted as mobile bases for manned submarines.

A mothership of this type can deploy and recover several large underwater drones, sustain them between missions and potentially operate them at a distance from mainland bases. That expands the range and persistence of unmanned systems used for tasks such as surveillance, mapping sea lanes, or other military roles.

For navies watching China’s buildup, a second XXLUUV suggests this is now a program with multiple hulls, not a one-off experiment. It points to a future undersea environment where manned submarines share the water with a growing number of sizable autonomous vehicles supported by dedicated platforms.

The main developments to watch include where China bases these motherships, whether satellite imagery shows associated patterns of large drone activity around them, and how quickly other major navies invest in similar unmanned support ships or in defenses designed to detect and track large underwater drones.