China's new Nuke submarine seen by satellite
Pastor Dale Morgan
China's new Nuke submarine seen by satellite*
Reuters
Thursday, July 5, 2007; 4:26 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's newest ballistic missile submarine, the
Jin-class vessel, has been spotted for the first time by a commercial
satellite, a nuclear expert at the Federation of American Scientists
said on Thursday.
The submarine was photographed in late 2006 south of the northeastern
Chinese city of Dalian, said Hans Kristensen, director of the FAS's
Nuclear Information Project.
It appeared to be based on Russia's Victor-3 model and, although
photographs are unclear, resembles China's early-1980s Xia-class
submarines, said Kristensen, who spotted the long-anticipated vessel.
The 133-metre (436-foot) Jin-class submarine probably will carry
Julang-2 sea-launched ballistic missiles in its estimated 12 launch
tubes. It was spotted moored at Xiaopingdao Submarine Base, which it has
used for testing in the past, he said.
"Chinese nuclear submarines are normally not based there. They're
located to the south, near Qingdao," Kristensen said by telephone.
In a defense strategy paper published on Thursday, Australia echoed
previous documents by the United States and Japan in voicing concern
about a rapid Chinese military expansion and lack of transparency about
strategy and policy.
The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence estimated in December that China
might build five Jin-class submarines, but that estimate was not
included in the Pentagon's annual report on China's military power,
published in May, Kristensen noted.
"The Chinese naval nuclear programs so far have been very, very slow,"
he said. "They've managed to get this submarine out, but it's been under
construction for many years."
FAS web site http://www.fas.org and visible on Google Earth
Normally secretive China likely sees a deterrent effect in allowing the
submarine to be seen from the sky by outsiders, Kristensen said.
"The fact that they have it and the fact that it moves around, I'm sure
they want the world to know about it," he said.