Meet China's First Nuclear-Powered Submarine (It Was A Total Disaster) - The National Interest

11/9/2019 Meet China's First Nuclear-Powered Submarine (It Was a Total Disaster) | The National Interest
Meet China's First Nuclear-Powered

Submarine (It Was a Total Disaster)
December 6, 2018 Topic: Security Region: Asia Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: China, Navy,

Military, Technology, World, Submarine
We explain.
by Kyle Mizokami
T
he five Type 091 submarines were originally all based with the
PLAN’s North Sea Fleet. The decision to base them all together was
likely for logistical reasons, as it would be easier to maintain five
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traffic analytics. nuclear reactors at a single facility. It should also be pointed out that
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the basing decision was made at a time when China considered the Soviet
Union a much more serious threat than the United States.
In 1974, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) accepted delivery of

the country’s first nuclear-powered submarine. Long a cherished goal of
Chairman Mao himself, the design was initially a disappointment. Despite
their less than ideal performance, the Type 091 Han-class submarines will
ultimately be remembered as Asia’s first indigenously produced nuclear
attack submarines.
(This first appeared several years ago.)
According to historian Benjamin Lai, author of The Dragon’s Teeth, China

first expressed interest in developing nuclear missile submarines as early
as 1958. The project then stalled for several years, a period coinciding with
the Great Leap Forward, but was revived in 1965. Beijing ultimately
decided on a more pragmatic approach, building an attack submarine first
and only then a missile submarine. The reasoning was that to produce an
attack submarine, China would only need to master the reactor technology
to be successful, while a nuclear ballistic missile submarine required
mastery of the reactor, a missile and the underwater launch system.
In many ways, this “walk before you run” strategy paralleled the American
effort to build an SSBN as the Americans first built the Skipjack-class
nuclear attack subs and then modified them into the missile-carrying
George Washington class. The Chinese defense industry set to work, with
designer Peng Shilu initially leading the effort. (Eventually his role would
be taken over by Huang Xuhua, who later worked on the Type 092 ballistic
missile submarine project.)
Unlike the Americans, who built world-class submarines and were the first
to utilize underwater nuclear propulsion, the Chinese were at a serious
technological disadvantage. That was evident in what came to be known as
the Type 091 class submarine.The submarines were produced at the Bohai
Shipyards in Huludao. The keel for the first submarine, pennant number
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401, was laid in 1968 and completed in 1974. Four more submarines
followed, the last being completed in 1991.
The slow production rate hints at serious engineering issues. The first
submarine took seven years to complete. The second took three years to
complete, while the last three each took only one year to complete.
According to the authoritative Combat Fleets of the World, the subs early on
were known within the PLAN as “sharks without teeth.” Overall, it took
twenty-one years to complete just five submarines.
The Type 091 class weighs 5,500 tons submerged. It has a length of
approximately 321 feet and a beam of thirty-two feet. The boats feature a
large sail reminiscent of the Soviet Type 636 Kilo-class submarines. The
teardrop-style hull was an early effort to catch up to the States in
submarine hull technology. In 2015, the now-defunct Want China Times
reported that Huang Xuhua claimed he developed the Type 091 hull from
two toy submarines imported from the United States and Hong Kong.
While a nice story, it seems unlikely that Huang could have divined enough
detail from a toy to bypass years of hydrodynamic research.
The Type 091 subs are equipped with six standard diameter 533-millimeter
torpedo tubes. They utilize the French Thomson-Sintra DUUX-5 passive
sonars, equipment that was purchased before the post–Tiananmen Square
arms embargo. The system can track up to three targets simultaneously.
The Type 091 can also lay sea mines.
One of the greatest, if not the greatest metric for a submarine is the ability
to operate quietly and evade detection. The Type 091 has been described as
a “relatively noisy submarine based on 1950s and 1960s technology.” Li
Jie, a Beijing-based military expert, claimed that the Type 091s are “about
20 years behind US vessels,” and still posed a threat to U.S. carriers. Li also
made the claim that during the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, two Type 091
submarines tracked the aircraft carriers USS Independence and USS
Abraham Lincoln, “pushing the US carriers back 200 miles.”
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The five Type 091 submarines were originally all based with the PLAN’s
North Sea Fleet. The decision to base them all together was likely for
logistical reasons, as it would be easier to maintain five nuclear reactors at
a single facility. It should also be pointed out that the basing decision was
made at a time when China considered the Soviet Union a much more
serious threat than the United States.
Today, the Type 091 submarines are slowly being phased out. The first sub,
401, was decommissioned in 2000 and the second in 2004. In 2014, one
paid a port call at Colombo, Sri Lanka. The following year, one Type 091
accompanied China’s rotation of ships posted to antipiracy duties off the
Horn of Africa. The voyage from northern China to off the coast of Somalia
is nearly eight thousand miles long, and may be the longest ever taken by a
Chinese nuclear submarine. This suggests that, more than four decades
after the ships were first built, the kinks in the design have been finally
worked out and Type 091 class is now thoroughly reliable.
In October of last year, China Daily reported the first of the Type 091s was
towed to the Chinese Navy Museum in Qingdao, where it will become a
permanent exhibit. The reactor and all nuclear material have been
removed for the exhibition.
Meanwhile, the PLAN is pushing ahead with new submarines. Three Type
093B submarines were launched in 2015 alone, and a Type 095 is
considered imminent. While the Type 091 may be remembered as a crude
effort, it was ultimately a successful one, and an important first step in
China’s self-sufficiency in nuclear submarines.
Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco

who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the
Daily Beast. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security
Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami.
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11/9/2019 Meet China's First Nuclear-Powered Submarine (It Was a Total Disaster) | The National Interest

Meet China's First Nuclear-Powered

December 6, 2018 Topic: Security Region: Asia Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: China, Navy,

In 1974, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) accepted delivery of

(This first appeared several years ago.)

According to historian Benjamin Lai, author of The Dragon’s Teeth, China

Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco

Face Off: How America Can REALLY

SPONSORED CONTENT Recommended by

Ignite Your Career With Discover the Most High-Tech Gadgets to

Wedding Cake Inexpensive Way To Lose Weight! (Try

London Serviced Apartments Might be Incredible New Anti-Snoring Device

SOBHA Palacia One Of Chennai's Most Exciting

Launching SOBHA BLOSSOM – CMDA Approved Plots

The 10 Richest Families Of The World. Especially No. 6

Famous People Who Died Without You Knowing

PolicyBazaar Term Insurance - Get 1 Crore Life Cover

Get Rs. 50 Lakhs Term Insurance at Just Rs 225*p.m.

What do you think?

Upvote Funny Love

Surprised Angry Sad

 Recommend t Tweet f Share Sort by Newest

Join the discussion…

SammyLee • a year ago

SOBHA Palacia One Of Chennai's Most Exciting

Launching SOBHA BLOSSOM – CMDA Approved Plots

PolicyBazaar Term Insurance - Get 1 Crore Life Cover

The 10 Richest Families Of The World. Especially No. 6

Famous People Who Died Without You Knowing

Get Rs. 50 Lakhs Term Insurance at Just Rs 225*p.m.

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