Naval News
Paris-based specialist naval defence news site founded in 2019.
On 15 September 2026 Naval News read satellite images of a Shanghai hull as the first Chinese carrier for very large drone submarines, a call Beijing has not answered. Six days later the site broke a Japanese deal to build robot landing craft.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026 · Appears in 3 active topics
Naval News calls a Shanghai hull a drone-submarine mothership; is that reading right?
Timeline for Naval News
Mentioned in: Onomichi to build Bulwark robot landers
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaMentioned in: China may build a drone-sub mothership
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaMentioned in: Exail wins a second secret navy order
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaMentioned in: Tethered drone flies from robot boat
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaMentioned in: France and Germany define digital sovereignty
European Tech SovereigntyBackground
Naval News is a specialist naval defence news site based in Paris. Xavier Vavasseur and Nathan Gain founded it in 2019, and Vavasseur is editor-in-chief and president, according to the site's own about page. It covers navies, shipbuilding, contracts and the fast-growing uncrewed Maritime sector, in English, for a readership of defence professionals and enthusiasts.
Naval News built its name on first-hand trade reporting and imagery analysis. In September 2026 it revealed that Bulwark Dynamics had picked a Japanese yard, Onomichi Dockyard, to manufacture both its Caravel landing craft, the 35ft model and the smaller 15. That month it also studied imagery of a hull taking shape at Hudong-Zhonghua and argued it would launch extra-large uncrewed submarines, with a hangar big enough for four of them; the site called that reading "by far the most plausible".
That mothership identification is the outlet's own inference from imagery, not an official disclosure, and Chinese authorities have said nothing about the hull.