China Building 'Star Wars'-Style Supership, Claims Report

The Chinese naval authorities have received a blueprint of a futuristic warship that will "completely overturn" the naval formation followed for more than a 100 years, according to a report in South China Morning Post (SCMP). The blueprint of the Star Wars-like ship has been presented by Rear Admiral Ma Weiming, who is key to the development of China's most advanced naval technologies, the outlet further said. The naval officer was quoted as saying that the ship will be unlike anything the world had seen.

"It will completely overturn the combat formation of naval fleets that has been in place for over a hundred years," Rear Admiral Ma said in a peer-reviewed paper published in Transactions of China Electrotechnical Society journal on June 13.

The so-called 'supership' could do the job of an entire carrier fleet, SCMP quoted the Rear Admiral as saying. It will have a new naval combat system, which will include electromagnetic weapons and a powerful nuclear-powered electrical system.

It will also have rail guns, coilguns, rocket launchers, laser weapons and high-powered microwaves. This will give the ship ability to defend against air attacks, engage in anti-submarine warfare, intercept missiles and deliver precise strikes on both naval and land targets.

In the research paper, Ma has attached a computer-generated image of the warship that carries a large number of aircraft, said SCMP.

"The ship's advanced technology cleverly and effectively transform the energy from the ship's power source into the electromagnetic energy needed to power high-powered weapons," he said in the paper, according to SCMP.

He has also presented some ambitious feats the warship can achieve. For example, the rail guns will be able to hit targets in near space at up to seven times the speed of sound. Further, the electromagnetic-launched missiles could be loaded like an automatic rifle, vastly increasing the vessel's missile capacity.