Kateryna Chernoval21:40, 09/26/24

The Chinese authorities tried to cover up this incident. It is possible that Chinese personnel were killed or injured when the submarine sank.

China’s newest nuclear attack submarine has sunk. This was a serious setback for one of China’s priority weapons programs .

The Wall Street Journal writes about this with reference to the statements of American officials. The incident, which Chinese authorities tried to cover up and which was not previously disclosed, occurred at a shipyard near Wuhan in late May or early June 2024. And this has come at a time when the country is trying hard to expand its navy, including a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

The U.S. does not know whether the submarine was carrying nuclear fuel when it sank, but experts outside the U.S. government believe it is likely.

“Submarine technology has long been an area of ​​US superiority, but China is working hard to close the gap. China is trying to diversify its production of nuclear submarines. It was concentrated in the northeastern city of Huludao, but now China is moving to the production of nuclear attack submarines at the Wuchang Shipyard near Wuhan,” the newspaper writes. 

According to a Pentagon report last year on China’s military power, Beijing had 48 diesel-powered attack submarines and six nuclear-powered submarines at the end of 2022.

The report says that China’s goal in developing new attack submarines, surface ships and naval aircraft is to counter efforts by the US and its partners to come to Taiwan’s aid during the conflict and achieve “sea superiority” within the first island chain – the strip the territory from the Japanese archipelago through Taiwan and the Philippines to the South China Sea.

What is known about the sunken boat

The sunken Zhou-class submarine is the first of a new class of Chinese nuclear-powered submarines and has a distinctive X-shaped stern designed to make the vessel more manoeuvrable.

The submarine was built by the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp. and was seen docked on the Yangtze River in late May undergoing final outfitting before going to sea.

After the submarine sank, large floating cranes arrived in early June to rescue it from the riverbed, according to satellite images of the scene.

It is noteworthy that neither the People’s Liberation Army of China, as the Chinese army is called, nor the local authorities have acknowledged this episode.

It’s no wonder the Navy is trying to hide the fact that its new state-of-the-art nuclear attack submarine has sunk near a pier, a senior U.S. defense official said.

“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, this incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defense industry, which has long suffered from corruption,” he stressed.

The first public evidence that something was amiss at the shipyard near Wuhan came over the summer, when Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. submarine officer and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, wrote a series of social media posts calling attention to an unusual activity of floating cranes captured by commercial satellite images.

Shugart suggested that it might have been an incident involving a new type of submarine, but he did not know at the time that it was nuclear-powered. Although the submarine has been salvaged, it will likely be many months before it can put to sea. According to Shugart, the entire boat was filled with water. 

“All electronics will have to be cleaned. Electric motors may have to be replaced. There will be a lot of work,” he explained.

U.S. officials found no indication that Chinese officials were sampling the water or the environment for traces of radiation. It’s possible that Chinese personnel were killed or injured when the submarine sank, but U.S. officials say they don’t know if there were any casualties.

Shugart says the risk of a nuclear leak is likely low because the submarine was not out to sea and its reactors were probably not operating at high power levels.Navy of China

Earlier it became known that for the first time in history, China took all its aircraft carriers to sea . “Fujian” conducted tests in the Yellow Sea. “Shandong” was in the South China Sea west of Taiwan along with the escort. “Liaoning” with an escort was in the Philippine Sea to the east of Taiwan.

Military observer David Ax noted that in wartime Chinese aircraft carriers could protect landing forces crossing the Taiwan Strait and launch airstrikes against Taiwanese forces from multiple directions. They could also go into the Pacific Ocean to confront US carrier groups headed for the defense of Taiwan.

(C)UNIAN 2024