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Good day. This is just a short video on a new
Chinese submarine that had just been discovered
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to be either under construction or had just been
completed, by the Guangzhou Shipyard in southern
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China, in the city of its namesake, according to
Naval News citing the analysis of high-resolution
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satellite images by a defence watcher named
MT Anderson. To the best of my knowledge,
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the satellite images leading to such a discovery
has not yet been made available publicly.
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It should be noted that the Guangzhou Shipyard is
not generally known for building submarines. They
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are normally associated with building
supply ships, replenishment ships and
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auxiliary naval ships. But lately they have
been building all sorts of weird things,
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for example the new amphibious landing barges
with long road bridges, and the world’s largest
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unmanned warship, along with an aircraft carrier
under civilian control. So this new submarine is
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the latest strange gadget to have come out of
the Guangzhou Shipyard on the Longxue Island.
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As Naval News noted, “Western submarines are
reported in media years before they are even laid
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down. While there are always secrets surrounding
their design and capabilities, their existence
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cannot be kept secret. China however has a track
record of building submarines in almost complete
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secrecy. This isn’t the first time.“
Preliminary assessment by MT Anderson,
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and possibly corroborated by Naval News if they
were given access to the same images, is that the
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new submarine is around 45 meters long and around
5 metres wide. So, this is a very small submarine,
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and it’s almost certainly diesel-electric
powered. However, the most notable features of
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this new boat are the very large X-form rudders
at the stern, and what appear to be the absence
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of a sail, or conning tower, as they are more
traditionally known as. We have observed each one
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of these features on previous Chinese submarine
classes before, but not both on the same boat.
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Here's a drawing of the new boat produced by Naval
News contributor HI Sutton. We have a very smooth
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submarine – it doesn’t have a traditional sail. So
all the communication devices, the radio antenna,
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the periscope, and potentially the radar systems,
which are all typically mounted in the sail, will
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have to go somewhere else. The drawing appears to
show these antennae and devices being stored in a
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slightly raised dorsal section towards the aft,
ready to be deployed when they need to be used.
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The submarine is believed to have four torpedo
tubes, which is plenty enough for a hunter killer,
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although questions remain about its capacity
to store a significant number of torpedoes,
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given its small size. Going back towards the aft
again, you see a X-shaped stern rudder instead of
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the conventional cruciform rudder. I assume the
difference in shape between an X and a crucifix
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is intuitive enough. Towards the back, we have a
standard skewback propeller. There also appears
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to be a tactical towed array sonar installed.
To the top right of the artwork, there’s a
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comparison between the new submarine and two
other somewhat similar submarine classes. It
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shows that the new boat is unique in many
ways. The new submarine is the second one,
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in the middle. The top submarine is an unknown
class that was launched by the Jiangnan Shipyard
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in 2018. It too lacks the conning tower commonly
found on submarines, but instead, has a tiny bump
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where the conning tower is supposed to be.
However, it is slightly larger than the new
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submarine we’re focusing on, and more importantly
does not have an X configuration of rudders.
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The bottom submarine is an extra-large unmanned
underwater vehicle the size of the US Navy’s Orca.
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The lack of a sail can make it more likely to be
unmanned, because an unmanned submarine would not
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need an access point high above the waterline.
However, because the new submarine is many times
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larger than the Orca, this probably means that
it has to support accommodation for the crew. So,
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given its large size, it’s probably unlikely to be
an unmanned submarine, although you can’t really
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say for sure. China has built a huge unmanned
surface warship, so they appear to be very willing
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to try new things that haven’t been tried before.
The role of the new submarine remains unclear,
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although it’s almost certainly intended for
operations in shallow waters in China’s near
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seas. This is given its very small size, and the
incorporation of the X-rudders. Small torpedo
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attack subs could be very effective in shallow
coastal waters. If the sub is indeed unmanned,
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it could be used far more aggressively against
enemy naval forces, and under much greater risk
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than a manned sub. It’s also possible I
suppose that it’s a dedicated minelayer,
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able to deliver sea mines inconspicuously onto
the path of an incoming enemy. That role would be
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crucial for mining off the chokepoints into parts
of the first island chain, denying access to even
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the submarines of Western navies in wartime.
Additionally, given the recurring propensity
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of the Guangzhou Shipyard to produce experimental
naval ships in the recent years, this submarine
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could be a testbed for new technology,
including those we had discussed in this video.
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Going back to the X rudder configuration,
it’s worth noting that this has been done
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before in China, and has been spotted
at the Wuchang Shipyard in Wuhan,
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on the Yangtze River. The X rudder at that time
was fitted to a much larger submarine than the
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one we had just seen. The experimentation with
such a system of hydroplanes suggest that we
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will most likely see the same setup for the
future Type 095 nuclear attack submarines,
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and the Type 096 ballistic missile subs.
Of course you might be wondering what are
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benefits, or the advantages, of an X configuration
for the rudder over a traditional cruciform
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design. If you want to better understand
that, I suggest that you watch this video
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on the earlier sighting of an X-rudder submarine
in China. That will be all, see you next time.
video to article