carriers Archives - usatoday24

Europe believed that the Russian ghost fleet moved oil. Report points to something much worse: drone “aircraft carriers”

July 6, 2026 by usatoday24

During the First World War, the United Kingdom created the called Q-ships: Seemingly harmless merchant ships that hid cannons under their decks to attract German submarines and surprise them when they approached. The idea of turning a commercial ship into a weapon It wasn’t new.. The striking thing is that, more than a century later, it could have evolved much more than we imagined. It all started with some drones. At the end of 2024 they began to register drone raids on several American military bases in England and, shortly after, on other strategic facilities in Germany. The devices appeared and disappeared without a trace, forcing investigations to be opened that they never identified publicly to those responsible. Those flights seemed like another episode in Europe’s growing hybrid war, although a new report maintains that the true origin could have been much further from the coast. Capture of the IISS report The hypothesis. a study from the International Institute for Strategic Studies maintains that it is “highly probable” that Russia used ships linked to its well-known ghost fleet as platforms to launch and recover drones. This network of oil tankers and merchants had been associated until now with crude oil transportation to avoid Western sanctions. If the hypothesis ends up being confirmed, those ships would have also played a military function much more sophisticated covert. A tanker can become an aircraft carrier. They counted TWZ analysts that the great advantage of a merchant ship is precisely that no one expects it to act as a military platform. A ship can remain for days in international waters, discreetly approach the coast, launch a reconnaissance drone and continue its trade route without raising suspicion. Compared to an aircraft carrier, whose presence is impossible to hide, a cargo ship offers perfect cover for operations that are difficult to attribute. The chosen bases. The targets included facilities such as RAF Lakenheathwhich is being prepared for host nuclear weapons American, as well as RAF Mildenhall, RAF Fairford, RAF Feltwell and Ramstein air base in Germany. The researchers collected around of 170 citizen noticesof which approximately half were considered credible after being corroborated by several witnesses or images. They also detected coordinated flight patternsdifferent types of aircraft and trajectories incompatible with recreational use. The sea offers an explanation. The report poses that some drones were able to take off from Russian-related ships located out of visual range of the coast. Among the possibilities is the Orlan-10a military drone with sufficient autonomy to cover these distances and equipped with intelligence sensors, surveillance, reconnaissance and even electronic warfare capabilities. The authors themselves recognize that using an identifiable military model would increase the risk of attribution, so they do not rule out the use of modified commercial drones to make it even more difficult to trace their origin. The boss worries. Plus: the study’s authors admit that their conclusions rest on a combination of cluesknown capabilities and geographical coincidences, not on definitive public evidence. No European government has officially linked a specific ship to a specific incursion, although various policymakers have called for new investigations. For their part, both the British Ministry of Defense and the US Air Force in Europe have confirmed drone flights, but remain silent on any intelligence information related to their possible authorship. The hybrid war. If the hypothesis is correct, the problem would no longer be solely the existence of a ghost fleet dedicated to transporting Russian oil. Europe would also have to assume that some of those same ships can serve as discrete platforms for espionage operationsreconnaissance or electronic warfare hundreds of kilometers from the front. In other words, the biggest threat of the report is not to identify who launched those drones, but to propose that a simple merchant ship could play part of the role that until now was only attributed to an aircraft carrier. Image | Google In Xataka | Europe has encountered a problem bigger than Russia: drones cannot be stored for more than eight weeks In Xataka | Cities such as London or Madrid appear on Russia’s new objective map. The reason: drone production

China has stormed in, aiming directly at its aircraft carriers

February 25, 2026 by usatoday24

In the Persian Gulf, where it transits near one fifth of world oil, every military movement It has a more than obvious global importance. A single Nimitz-class aircraft carrier costs more than $4 billion and can operate for half a century, while its embarked air wing is equivalent in power to the entire air force of many countries. Moles such as the USS Abraham Lincoln or the USS Gerald R. Ford concentrate thousands of crew and hundreds of aircraft, if you will too, decades of American naval supremacy. However, in that region accustomed to fragile balancesa technological change or a new alliance is enough to alter everything. A pulse that is no longer bilateral. The confrontation between Washington and Tehran can no longer be understood as a direct duel with Russia as the only strategic shadow support. The US naval buildup off the Iranian coast, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier battle groups, seemed to place the pressure in a classic framework maritime deterrent. However, the scenario has changed and in what way. Washington’s fight against Iran has entered another dimension. It is no longer just Russia supporting the Iranian regime with drones or point systems: China just entered squarely aiming directly at the American aircraft carriers, altering the psychological and operational balance of the crisis. The missile that changes the naval equation. I told it in Reuters exclusive. Iran is about to close the purchase of the Chinese CM-302a supersonic anti-ship cruise missile with a range close to 290 kilometers and designed to fly low and fast, reducing the reaction time of naval defenses. Marketed by the state corporation CASIC as “the best anti-ship missile in the world,” its mere integration into the Iranian arsenal increases the threat about surface units Americans deployed in the Gulf and the regional environment. Now it is not just a technical improvement in an arsenal weakened after the conflict with Israel, but a qualitative leap: for the first time in this crisis, the ability to sink or disable An American aircraft carrier ceases to be a remote hypothesis and becomes a tangible strategic variable. China enters the Gulf board. There is no doubt, the negotiations between Beijing and Tehran are not improvised. I counted the means they carry at least two years brewing in internal meetings, but accelerated after the twelve day war with Israel and have involved numerous trips by senior Iranian officials to China, including the deputy defense minister. In parallel, China has politically supported Iran against the reimposition of sanctions and has intensified its coordination with Moscow and Tehran in joint naval exercises. So much so, that the possible transfer of the CM-302 de facto challenges the embargo regime and symbolizes something deeper: the unprecedented will of Beijing to project power in a region historically dominated by the US Navy. The implicit message is quite clear: if Washington presses with its nuclear aircraft carriers, China responds with missiles capable of putting them at risk. Russia rebuilds Iranian defense from below. It we count a few days ago. As China aims for the sea, Russia strengthens the sky and the ground. The agreement to supply helicopters Mi-28NE attack and Verba portable systems It is part of a rearmament package aimed at rebuilding Iranian capabilities after the degradation suffered against Israel. The Mi-28, optimized for night and low-altitude operations, provide Iran with a modern tool to respond to ground incursions, special operations or amphibious movements in the Gulf. Integrated with drones and precision anti-tank missiles, expand threat density around strategic infrastructures and possible approach routes. They do not redefine the regional balance on their own, but they do thicken the defensive network that any CENTCOM planning must consider. From classical deterrence to multidimensional risk. In short, the United States deploy forces with the intention of deterring or preparing for prolonged attacks if nuclear negotiations fail. Iran, for its part, responds activating military agreements with his allies and rebuilding capabilities losses. What was previously a contained confrontation between Washington and Tehran, with Moscow as relevant partner but indirect, it is now transformed into a strategic triangle where China assumes an active and visible role. If you also want, the Gulf stops being just a regional scenario and becomes a point of friction between great powers. The presence supersonic missile Chinese forces that can directly threaten the symbols of American naval power introduce a new geometry of risk: because it is no longer just about resisting sanctions or negotiate nuclear limitsbut also to calculate how far a crisis can escalate in which the holy grail US military, its aircraft carriers, no longer seem untouchable. Image | US NAVY In Xataka | From space something very dangerous can be seen in Iran: the US cannot do what it did in Caracas if it does not want a massacre In Xataka | If the US attacks Iran with drones, it will find a surprise: Russia has shielded its sky with an explosive weapon, Verba

Satellite images have revealed that China has gathered its most important aircraft carriers. And that can only mean one thing

December 23, 2025 by usatoday24

The simultaneous appearance of the two ends of the Chinese aircraft carrier fleet, the Liaoning veteran and the newly incorporated Fujiandocked at the same naval base does not seem to be a logistical coincidence, but rather a carefully eloquent image. One that can only mean one thing: it is training naval “one plus one.” Two aircraft carriers, one message. Satellite images show both ships moored in Qingdaoa port historically linked to the development of Chinese naval aviation and now expanding to accommodate a new phase of maritime ambition. Together, they represent the past learned and the future being rehearsed: the transition from a regional navy to a force of waters blues capable of operating in a sustained manner far from their shores. From symbol to real capacity. China already has the largest navy in the world by number of hulls, but the qualitative leap is marked by embarked aviation. Entry into service from Fujianthe first Chinese aircraft carrier designed from scratch with electromagnetic catapults introduces a capability that until now was only dominated by the United States. In front of him, Liaoning brings more than a decade of operational experience. The coexistence of both on the same dock points to something more than maintenance: it suggests doctrinal integrationknowledge transfer and the practical initiation of group operations with multiple aircraft carriers, a threshold that separates regional navies from truly global ones. Qingdao as a laboratory. Side by side mooring It’s unusual and deliberate.. It coincides with the declaration of restricted maritime zones in the Bohai Strait and the northern Yellow Sea, a classic indication of imminent exercises. Everything points to joint training in which aircraft departure rates, deck security, logistics, command and control, and coordination between air wings will be compared. The objective is not only for Fujian to learn from Liaoning, but to see how two platforms with different capabilities can operate. as a single systemmultiplying its effectiveness. In naval terms, it is not about adding ships, but about creating operational synergies. Beyond the Strait. The Fujian’s movement northward, crossing the Taiwan Strait without aircraft on deck, has been closely followed through Tokyo and Taipei. Precisely this detail reinforces the reading that it is not a combat mission, but rather a training one. The background, however, seems unequivocal: Beijing wants to break the logic of the First Island Chain (the arc that goes from Japan to the Philippines via Taiwan) and demonstrate that it can project power beyond it. Operating two aircraft carriers in a coordinated manner is key to sustain presenceprotect distant sea lines and provide credible deterrence against US aircraft carrier groups. Implicit response to Washington. The Pentagon assumes that the People’s Liberation Army Navy is in the early stages of operating a multinaval force with aircraft carrierprogressively expanding its radius of action. The continued presence of US aircraft carriers in the Indo-Pacific, under the logic of containment and defense of allies, acts as a catalyst for this process. If you will, China somehow seems to say that it does not need to announce a doctrine for the message to get through: the image of two aircraft carriers together in Qingdao communicates that accelerated learning has begun and that the operational gap is closing. The power of tomorrow. There is no doubt, the analysts match in that these movements do not indicate an imminent conflict. But they do reveal patient and methodical preparation. Crew integration, procedure comparison and dual command testing are essential steps for a navy that aspires to operate autonomously in the Western Pacific and beyond. Japan watches it with special attention because you have already seen Chinese aircraft carriers cross its defensive perimeter in recent exercises. Each deployment, each joint training, normalizes what a decade ago would have seemed exceptional. The threshold that China wants to cross. In short, the true meaning of Qingdao is not in the number of tons or the technological novelty of Fujian, but in the sign of maturity. Going from an experimental aircraft carrier to a couple training together is crossing a strategic threshold. It is not the prelude to war, but to status. China rehearses today the choreography that will need tomorrow to hold your global maritime ambition. And in that essay, the message to allies and rivals is clear: the era of the lone Chinese aircraft carrier is behind us, and that of the carrier group has just begun. Image | Copernicus In Xataka | The Fujian is officially China’s largest power catapult: Beijing already has a button to challenge the US Navy In Xataka | China’s first aircraft carrier hunted from space by a US satellite

Log In

Sign In

Forgot password?

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections