It's said that the cover of "The Economist 2026" predicts what will happen in the coming year. There's an image of a cargo ship launching missiles, seemingly in self-defense. I wouldn't be surprised if ships start defending themselves.
What do you think?
https://i.redd.it/wys4famj9gvg1.jpeg
Posted by Moreste87
23 Comments
Sorry, I meant this year
I mean wouldn’t that make it a warship and allow to sink it legally?
They already are – China has an armed merchant ship design called a **Zhongda 79**
The defense of the ships will cost more than the goods that’s being transported lol
And like a fleet of badasses on jet skis guarding it.
Missiles are terrible for arming ships. The point of being a merchant is not having massive sensors and being able to trade.
They could but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re the size of 3 football fields and move at the speed of a bicycle. They’re big lumbering targets.
Technically there are already container missiles in service, but I think that’s deployed on container trucks for moving, undetectable missile launchers. So having them on a container vessel isn’t exactly a stretch.
These ships are operated by skeleton crews of Third World sailors, they aren’t soldiers.
So Ukraine and Isreal have both modified shipping containers to store and launch quad drones. This absolutely can be done from a container ship. You just need one and launch multiple drones onto incoming helicopters or small fast boats. Hell you could take out a first class destroyer by droning its radar and communication mast and then hit the bridge of the war ship. This would not be hard to do with fiber optic control drones.
China is doing just that.
https://amp.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3337842/china-quietly-preparing-cargo-ships-transform-military-vessels-case-war
I can’t wait to see the emails coming from the shippers.
“We are sorry for the delay. Our cargo ship came under heavy fire off the coast of Iran. Half you shipment was lost due to an Shaeed drone penetrating our anti air defenses. We hope you consider us for your next shipment. Thanks.”
Good way to get the ship sunk. The boardings will take place by air for the MEU that’s in theatre. If they shoot at the helicopters then they are a sitting duck to be sunk.
won’t be affective with LNG ships I assume
They’re containerizing surface to air and surface to surface missiles, and drone launching systems…
The top flips open and the missiles are tilted up and launched…
… if you smuggled such a box into a container port (no idea how easy that would be), and made sure it was loaded on the top layer of boxes…
… you could remotely launch an attack from a ship that has *nothing* to do with the conflict. … or more likely, start a conflict with a sneak attack.
😆 – China
This would only protect against pirates. It’s worthless as defense against artillery that aims to sink the entire ship.
They used to be. I believe del monte had the largest navy for a while?
The historic context for this are Q ships. They’re not all armed, there are far too many ships, and the cost is prohibitive…
But, if someone is interdicting your shipping, navies have historically armed just a few of them, and then put them in vulnerable positions to try and ambush any would be attackers.
It was very effective in the past, and though the context has changed a lot, something similar could certainly happen again. It’s hard to go toe to toe with a modern warship though, let alone a submarine.
Another thing I could certainly see happening is active, cheap air defence on most ships. Small interception drones could be fairly cheap, and wouldn’t protect a ship from a submarine or warship, but could shoot down a few incoming drones at fairly minimal cost. Ukraine is building these now, I do predict this tech will proliferate to a lot of ships.
Some ships already hire armed contractors to keep pirates at bay. You can find YouTube videos of them shooting at pirates.
If a merchant ship is getting attacked with missiles, combat ships, or aerial, probably cheaper to avoid the route entirely and have the government come sort it out. Trade is 100s of billions of taxes, so it’s in a gov’s financial interest to keep trade flowing.
r/noncredibledefense is leaking.
I assume they are defending themselves against US boarding parties? They would need a lot of weapons, maybe just electrify the superstructure or mount a Tesla coil to zap Marines.
Against drones? Lmao. No.