At the recent Seoul maritime defence expo, South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean and Hyundai Heavy Industries unveiled competing models for unmanned aircraft carriers, including a headline 42,000‑ton design and a smaller 15,000‑ton concept, while a 32,000‑ton variant is said to be under development. The navy has signalled a doctrinal shift by placing an “unmanned carrier” at the centre of a next‑generation carrier strike group and plans to retrofit its Dokdo and Maro Island amphibious ships to launch, recover and command unmanned aerial systems alongside crewed platforms.
The sizes put forward are notable: a 42,000‑ton hull approaches the scale of large amphibious assault ships and small conventional carriers, indicating an ambition to field organic sea‑based endurance for long‑range surveillance, airborne early warning and strike drones. Seoul’s emphasis on “manned–unmanned” coordination suggests a hybrid operational model in which traditional crews handle logistics, command and damage control while autonomous systems extend reach, reduce risk to personnel and permit more distributed strike and sensing networks.
Regionally the move matters because it changes calculi of deterrence and reach. For operations around the Korean Peninsula, East China Sea and beyond, drone‑centric carriers could provide persistent maritime domain awareness and precision‑strike options without the peacetime political baggage of a fully crewed large carrier. They will, however, add a new dimension to maritime competition with neighbours and could complicate relations with Japan — given Dokdo’s sovereignty sensitivities — and draw close attention from Beijing and Pyongyang.
Industrial and operational hurdles remain substantial. Turning a large decked ship into an effective unmanned carrier requires advances in launch and recovery systems, secure and resilient command‑and‑control links, and doctrines to manage swarms or mixed air wings under electronic‑warfare pressure. For South Korea’s defence industry the programme is also an opportunity: domestic builders gain experience and exportable products, but timelines, cost trade‑offs and integration with U.S. alliance frameworks will determine whether the concept moves from model to fleet.