What's going on with China's new submarines?

Not only does the virus come from Wuhan, deep in the interior of the country, but a considerable number of ship designs are also being built in the shipyards on the Yangtze River. Following a launch in May, which took place without publicity, satellite images of a submarine construction previously unknown in the navy of the Chinese PLA were discovered there in July. China is extremely secretive when it comes to submarines. It is known that the conventional Yuan class (type 039A/C, 77 metres, 3,600 tonnes) has been and will be increasingly put into service in three variants and a total of 20 units from 2010. This type is also being built in Wuhan as the Hangor class in an export version for Pakistan. The newly discovered boat with an X-shaped rudder is very similar to the old Yuan class at the front, but is significantly longer in the area behind the tower, which could indicate a modernised Yuan with vertical take-off silos. China has already gained experience with such VLS with the slightly larger experimental boat of the Quing class (Type 032) since 2010. A vertical launch silo on a conventional boat with external air-independent propulsion would catapult the rather less recognised Chinese boats to the top of the world rankings.

New submarine building, photo: x@tshugart3

And then this: The new attack submarine, which American sources assume is nuclear-powered, disappeared from satellite images between May and June of this year - four large floating cranes then gathered around its old berth. Some of the floating piers had also been moved to the side, possibly to free up access for the salvage of a submerged damaged vessel. American media refer to the new attack submarine as the Zhou class (Type 041) and, in the absence of any information about it, ask whether China is trying to conceal a serious incident that would significantly slow down the Chinese navy's newbuilding programme. Of course this will be the case! Even if the newbuilding is not damaged, there will be no information about it: all information about submarines is subject to the highest level of secrecy in China. If there really was an accident, no navy in the world would want to publicise such an incident anyway - if they could. All analysts are now watching the reconnaissance data east of Wuhan on the Yangtze River and everything to do with Chinese submarines with all the more interest.