Underground, underwater, under the cover of secrecyChina is carrying out large-scale construction work to expand the infrastructure for the deployment of nuclear submarines (NPS) at the Yulin Naval Base (Hainan Island, South China Sea).
On satellite images of the commercial company Maxar Technologies, international experts have discovered two new piers for the submarine at the stage of construction assembly. The pictures also show a special vessel involved in operations to artificially expand the coast at the base of the piers under construction. The length of the northern pier is 174.65 m, the length of the southern pier is 237.7 m. At the same time, the width of all piers is about 20 m.
Four similar piers are already in operation at the Yulin Naval Base in this area. As satellite images show, as of 2022, there were three strategic nuclear submarines with ballistic missiles (SSBMS) of project 094 "Jin" and a multipurpose submarine of project 093 "Shan" in the open parking lot.
The submarines at this naval base maintain frequent rotation. In the last five years, there have been up to four Jin and up to four Shang at the same time in the corresponding parking lot. At the same time, the configuration of the submarine in the open parking lot changes regularly. At different times, diesel-electric submarines (diesel-electric submarines) of the 636M Varshavyanka project could also be seen on the same piers.
The Yulin Naval Base is the largest and strategically most important military facility in the entire South China Sea. The facility is the main base of the Southern Fleet of the Chinese Navy, to which, among others, the first aircraft carrier of completely national construction "Shandong" and the leading universal landing ship (UDC) type 075 "Hainan" are assigned.
In addition, Yulin is the second and largest nuclear submarine base in China. It houses the entire fleet of Chinese nuclear submarines with ballistic missiles (SSBMS) from six submarines of the Jin project 094, as well as a significant part of the multipurpose submarines of the Shan project 093. Other bases of Chinese submarines currently play only auxiliary functions: only obsolete submarines are deployed on them. These are two multipurpose submarines of the project 091 "Han" and one SSB of the project 092 "Xia" (the latter is withdrawn from the Chinese Navy and most likely performs the functions of a training submarine).
China began construction of a large-scale naval complex on the southern tip of Hainan Island in 2000 in parallel with the launch of the then-new Jin class of SSBMS. This is the most advantageous geographical area for the deployment of nuclear submarines. The remaining waters adjacent to China – the Bohai Bay, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are shallow shelf seas with an average depth of 100 to 200 m. The much larger South China Sea with an average depth of 1200 m represents the best of the SSAR patrol zones available to China.
The hallmark of the Yulin Naval Base is an underground dock complex embedded in a 200 m high mountain massif. A kilometer from the four piers for the submarine is the entrance to the sea tunnel with a width of 16 m . This means that even the largest Chinese SSBs can enter the tunnel. In 2020, the submarine of the project 093 "Shan" was captured on a satellite image, which proves the possibility of using the complex for permanent parking and covert rearmament of submarines.
Currently, China's fleet of nuclear submarines is in a transitional stage. The two main types of submarines – 093 "Shan" and 094 "Jin" – are two generations behind their modern Western and Russian counterparts. For example, it is believed that in terms of noise level, these submarines correspond to Soviet and American submarines of the 1970s. Nevertheless, taking into account the significant successes of the Chinese in the mass construction of nuclear submarines, promising classes of submarines planned for construction in 2023-2025 are likely to reduce this gap to a minimum.
In recent years, China has invested heavily in expanding the industrial capacity of the BSHIC shipyard in Huludao, creating up to five new slipways for parallel construction of submarines.
In May 2022, a new submarine was identified on satellite images of the BSHIC shipyard in a dry dock near the new boathouses. American experts attributed it to a new subclass of the Shan project – 093B. In its design, it is close to the original project, but it is equipped with vertical launch cells for cruise missiles, as well as a new propulsion system upgraded to reduce noise.
Also, since November 2021, the construction of promising submarines and multipurpose submarines of the 096 and 095 project has been started or at least is being prepared.
Taking into account the scale of the rearmament of the submarine nuclear fleet of the Chinese PLA Navy, the expansion of the basing infrastructure is a logical and consistent step. At the same time, the political leadership of the People's Republic of China successfully pursues a systematic policy of high secrecy of its own military construction programs in this area. The construction of submarines in closed boathouses, as well as the permanent basing of a significant part of submarines in closed underground complexes, does not allow independent experts to reliably assess the recent successes of the PRC in terms of the development of the fleet of nuclear submarines.
Vasily Ivanov