- Video showcases China’s road-mobile electromagnetic catapult launching an aircraft for the first time
- The footage comes from a now-deleted social media post from the Beijing Institute of Technology’s School of Mechanical Engineering
- Leverages China’s existing EMALS tech by miniaturizing what it already uses on its aircraft carrier
China seems to have solved one of the biggest challenges modern drones face: deploying without a runway anywhere on the planet, thanks to a miniaturized version of the EMALS catapults found on its newest aircraft carrier.
A short video clip that surfaced towards the tail end of last month, from a social media post by the Beijing Institute of Technology’s School of Mechanical Engineering, shows three eight-wheeled trucks linked together in a Lego-like fashion to form a runway that allows a propeller-driven drone to take flight.
The footage also shows all three trucks detached, coupling with each other, and exhibiting all-wheel steering that, in principle, enables them, if given enough space, to launch drones or small aircraft in any direction.
Replacing a runway in the modern battlefield?
China’s move is not one that occurred in a vacuum: the United States was the first country in the world to deploy an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), sparking an arms race when it launched its first aircraft in 2017 aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford.
China followed suit with its own aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which sports three EMALS catapults to the US’s four, possibly accounting for the Chinese carrier’s smaller size relative to its principal naval rival’s largest.
China has, however, beaten the US to the punch when it comes to demonstrating a portable EMALS, it seems, with its three-truck solution essentially marking a first for either country.
Chinese state-owned giants account for a significant share of the 70+ organizations directly involved in an impressive achievement that sets the stage for the next generation of drone-based combat.
Despite the video making its way across social media, it was taken down by the Beijing Institute of Technology’s School of Mechanical Engineering, which originally posted it. The move, however, has not stopped defense forums and Chinese analysts from offering insights into what is clearly a major technological achievement for the country.
With France and India both committed to launching EMALS (albeit on future aircraft carriers for now), only two countries currently have the tech deployed on a ship, and only one of them has a land-based, portable option in play for now: China.
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