Shanghai University's Uncrewed Vessels Support China's Maritime Expansion

 

[By Astrid Young]

ASPI’s newly expanded China Defence Universities Tracker reveals how leading Chinese research institutions, including Shanghai University (SHU), are developing advanced uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) to boost China’s military and territorial ambitions.

SHU’s Jinghai series are reportedly the first Chinese uncrewed vessels to operate in the South and East China seas and the Antarctic. Equipped with advanced technologies such as radar sensors and control systems, SHU’s USVs conduct scientific missions that enhance China’s maritime domain awareness and its ability to project power in contested waters.

USVs are becoming an important capability in the Indo-Pacific’s intensifying maritime contest. As marine vehicles that operate on the surface of the water, USVs are capable of long-endurance autonomy to support research, surveillance and military operations. Like drones, they also function without an onboard crew.

For example, the United States Navy deployed USVs in 2022 for operational surveillance in the Persian Gulf, a contested maritime environment where US vessels are often challenged by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Navy.

Historically, the US has had a technological edge, but China’s rapid advances in autonomy, swarm intelligence and cross-domain integration—linking USVs with uncrewed systems in the air, space and land domains—are closing the gap.

Established in 2010, SHU’s Research Institute of Unmanned Surface Vehicle Engineering is China’s first dedicated USV research institute. The institute has a stated focus on uncrewed, intelligent and swarming transportation systems for military and civilian uses, with the explicit goal of contributing to China’s maritime and polar strategies as well as national defense.

SHU holds a secret-level security clearance, an official certification given by key military and defense committees of the Chinese Communist Party that enable it to undertake classified defense projects. ASPI’s Defence Universities Tracker assesses SHU as a high-risk university for its involvement in defense research, strong ties to China’s defense industry, and supervision by the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

The institute has developed 15 intelligent USVs, named the ‘Jinghai’ series, that have been deployed on numerous research and geological survey vessels and procured by the China Maritime Safety Administration and the State Oceanic Administration for use on their patrol and surveillance vessels.

Each of the Jinghai vessels is specialized for specific mission tasks. This includes: conducting hydrographic surveys; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; search and rescue operations; firepower strikes; naval battlefield information support; and mine clearing.

Shanghai University’s series of 15 Jinghai uncrewed boats and where they were tested. Source: Shanghai University Artificial Intelligence Research Institute.

In 2013, Jinghai-1 conducted an exploration in the South China Sea with Coast Guard Ship 166, surveying more than 20 islands and reefs in the Paracel and Spratly Islands. This exploration provided data assistance for China’s subsequent reef reclamation and artificial island construction in 2014. This included the Fiery Cross Reef—a contested part of the Spratly Islands claimed by many countries.

Between 2015 and 2017, SHU’s Jinghai-3 conducted extensive geological surveying and nautical mapping of the islands and reefs in the South and East China Seas, deployed from the Xiangyanghong 19 survey vessel. This timing corresponds with China’s large-scale reef reclamation and island construction in 2013 and extensive infrastructure construction in the following years.

The research team was commended by the East China Sea Navigation Support Center of the Ministry of Transport, which recognized that the exploration ‘significantly improved [China’s] marine mapping … and ability to safeguard national sovereignty and maritime rights and interests’. That center also procured the Jinghai-2 USV for its own use in China’s surrounding waters and in Antarctica.

In 2014, SHU’s Jinghai-2 was reportedly China’s first uncrewed vessel to survey Antarctica. The survey results identified an anchorage location for China’s Xuelong polar research vessel. In 2023, two Jinghai uncrewed boats were equipped onto the Chinese Antarctic scientific expedition vessels Xuelong and Xuelong 2 and conducted surveying around China’s research station Changcheng and Marie Byrd Land, an unclaimed Antarctic region. The expedition was crucial in supporting the construction of Qinling, China’s fifth Antarctic station and its first on Antarctica’s Pacific coast. SHU’s Jinghai vessels were also deployed for coastal security patrols during major events including the 2017 BRICS Summit, 2017 Bo’ao Forum and 2018 Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

In 2020, SHU built the BGP Boy, reportedly China’s first dedicated USV for seismic exploration. It conducted surveys of oil and gas under the sea floor with the state-owned Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting, a unit under China National Petroleum Corporation.

In 2021, the USV research team tested swarm intelligence for cluster control by integrating USVs and uncrewed aerial vehicles in cross-domain swarming. The latest USV, the Jinghai-15, was developed with multi-functional reconnaissance and vigilance capabilities, both of which are crucial attributes of uncrewed combat systems. The institute has explicitly stated that cross-domain synergy—coordinated operations involving drones, vehicles and vessels guided by swarm intelligence algorithms—will be used to carry out complex surveillance missions. In the same year, SHU established a joint venture company, Jinghai Intelligent Unmanned Technology, to commercialize its USV patents.

Researchers from the USV institute have since worked on national defense projects for the Central Military Commission of Science and Technology as well as the Chinese navy’s Equipment Department in areas such as autonomous defense systems.

ASPI’s China Defence Universities Tracker exposes the sheer breadth of China’s research ecosystem, its integration of the Chinese Communist Party’s military-civilian fusion strategy and its depth of innovation when it comes to critical technologies. This visibility enables policymakers, defense planners and industry partners to grasp the full scope of China’s ambitions, strengthening due diligence processes, risk management and informing future policy decisions.

For more information about SHU and about China’s USV research, visit the ASPI China Defence Universities Tracker website.

Astrid Young is a junior researcher at ASPI, which provided this content. This article may be found in its original form here.