Covert Shores – When China unveiled its first ever large displacement underwater drone for the Navy in 2019, the 5-meter long HSU001, it was as if China was only taking baby steps on the road to autonomous undersea warfare. At the time Beijing was clearly behind leading Western navies. In just 6 years since then the situation has flipped, and the HSU001 now appears toy-like compared to what has followed. China’s development of extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicles (XLUUVs) is now unmatched globally, and accelerating rapidly. No other nation is pursuing undersea autonomy at comparable scale, scope, or speed.