Beyond the aircraft at the 2024 China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China), held in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai from 12 to 17 November, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has officially unveiled a new trimaran surface combatant called the Orca.
First spotted in October 2024 at Guangzhou Shipyard in southern China, which is around 130 km north of Zhuhai, the new trimaran is billed as being an unmanned surface vessel (USV) and is designated the JARI-USV-A, even though the vessel appears to have a conventional bridge, is around 58 m long and, according to Chinese media, displaces around 420 tons (381 tonnes). The manned bridge probably makes the USV easier to operate and more safety compliant in ports or busy waterways.
In some respects the Orca appears to resemble the slightly larger Indonesian Klewang-class fast attack craft, which is a trimaran vessel around 63 m long, although the Indonesian vessel only displaces around 216 tonnes. The outrigger hulls of the Chinese vessel are also amidships, while the outriggers on the Klewang class run along the aft section of the ship.
The Orca is thus perhaps closer in resemblance to the manned US Navy Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) design or the US Navy’s developmental Sea Hunter USV.
The Chinese vessel is much smaller than the Independence-class LCS design, which is 127 m long, but like the Independence class the Orca features a helicopter deck aft, which images in Chinese media have shown sporting a rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The outriggers in the Independence-class design also continue all the way aft from amidships, rather than the Orca’s amidships outrigger design.
The outriggers of the Sea Hunter do more closely resemble those of the Orca, but the US USV is much smaller, at 40 m in length, has no helicopter deck and is not considered a combat vessel.
China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), which designed and built the Orca, has previously produced smaller USVs broadly similar to the Sea Hunter.
According to Chinese media reports, the new Orca’s missions include surveillance patrols, surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare and air defence, although it can reportedly be reconfigured for “sea battlefield environment surveys and rescue in distress”, possibly suggesting that, like the LCS design, the Orca is designed to incorporate modular mission packages.
Chinese media have cited the Orca as having a maximum speed of 40 kts (74 km/h) and a range of around 4,000 n miles (7,408 km). Along with the rotary-wing UAV, the Orca’s weapon systems reportedly include anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles and torpedoes.
A model of the Orca displayed at Airshow China 2024 featured what appeared to be an HQ-10 point defence missile system on the aft deck and a possibly retractable medium-calibre cannon on the foredeck.
With an integrated mast housing multiple radar arrays, the Orca is rumoured to feature active electronically scanned-array (AESA) technology.
