By Deutsche Welle
27 Sep 2024, 01:13 AM EDT
China’s new nuclear-powered attack submarine sank earlier this year, a senior US defense official saida possible embarrassment for Beijing in its attempt to expand its military capabilities.
China already has the world’s largest navy, with more than 370 ships, and has embarked on the production of a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines.
A senior U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: China’s new first-class nuclear-powered attack submarine sank alongside a pier sometime between May and June.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said they had no information to provide.
“We are not familiar with the situation you mentioned and currently have no information to provide,” the Chinese official said.
Finding by satellite images
According to the US media The Wall Street Journal and CNN, the event came to light thanks to satellite images and it was the first Zhou-class submarine of its new line of ships.
A satellite image from March 10 shows the submarine docked in the port, while additional images dated in June show that the submarine did not return to the dock.
This represents a strong setback for one of China’s weapons programs, a country that the Pentagon has described as its “main challenge” in the long term.
“It is not surprising that the People’s Liberation Army Navy is trying to hide the fact that its new nuclear-powered attack submarine, the first of its kind, sank in dock,” a senior US defense official told The Wall Street Journal.
According to CNN, The event was identified by Tom Shugart, a research associate at the Center for a New American Security, which studies satellite images of Chinese shipyards.
An unusual presence of cranes
Shugart noticed “a bunch” of cranes grouped in the same place, something unusual in the shipyard, which would be the ones that came to rescue the submarine.
It is not known whether the submarine was carrying nuclear fuel at the time it sank, but experts outside the US government told The Wall Street Journal that it was probable.
China has been working to diversify production of nuclear-powered submarines and modernize its navy with the intention of building a global military on par with the United States.
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