June 13, 2025: China recently did something unusual, they revealed details of their 8,000-ton Type 094 nuclear powered SSBN. This ballistic missile carrying boat is 135 meters long and 13 meters wide with a top speed of 54 kilometers an hour. Maximum operating depth is 400 meters and the crew of 140 can stay submerged for several months, or until food and other crew supplies run out.

The six current 094’s entered service between 2007 and 2021 and two more are supposed to be added. So far there are no indications that any more of these SSBNs are under construction. Each Type 095 carries twelve solid-fuel JL-2 or JL-3 ballistic missiles. The three-stage JL-2 weighs 42 tons and is 13 meters long. Each one can carry up to eight 150 kiloton nuclear warheads. Maximum range is 7,400 kilometers and this SLBM entered service in 2015.

The more recent JL-3 has a longer range of 10,000 kilometers and is not much larger or heavier than the JL-2. This was accomplished by using a lighter version of the JL-2 warhead, carrying up to three warheads, with redesigned rocket motors and missile casing to achieve longer range without a significantly larger or heavier missile. Apparently, JL-3 missiles replaced JL-2s in 2022. China was apparently dissatisfied with the performance and reliability of the JL-2. This was confirmed by how quickly the older JL-2 missiles were replaced by the JL-3.

The Chinese Navy has 78 submarines but 90 percent of them are conventional diesel-electric designs. China has some nuclear powered attack subs and SSBNs. What is more difficult to create are proficient crews. The U.S. Navy has established and maintains very high standards for officers and sailors on its nuclear subs. American submarines remain at sea much longer than Chinese submarines. China is trying to catch up but is finding that serving on submarines is not a popular career choice. As a result the submarines’ officers are low quality and would rather not be serving on submarines.

Because of this China has had a lot of problems with its submarines. Their submarines are poorly designed and built. The crews are often poorly trained and supervised. Back in 2003 this led to an incident where 70 officers and sailors aboard a Chinese submarine suffocated and died. The sub did not sink; it just drifted for weeks until the Chinese Navy searchers found it and all the dead personnel on board. To remedy this situation the Chinese Navy was ordered to improve crew training and demonstrate the success of that by keeping the subs at sea longer while operating as they would in wartime. That is still a work in progress.

This means the U.S. Navy is encountering Chinese submarines in areas of the central Pacific where Chinese subs had rarely been seen. This has put a strain on Chinese submarines and their crews because neither has operated this far into the Pacific before. The Chinese government ordered its submarines to regularly patrol the central Pacific, rather than just along the Chinese coast as they had in the past. The Chinese are new to operating on the high seas, otherwise known as far out in the open ocean. The Americans have long been out there because the United States has not had local enemies on the north and south American continents for more than a hundred years.

The Americans and Chinese are both dependent on seaborne imports and exports. Thousands of ships regularly operate out of American and Chinese ports because these two countries are the largest importers and exporters in the world. Keeping those ocean sea routes safe is important for both countries. Enemy submarines are the major threat to those commercial transports and it’s been eighty years since there has been a threat to commercial sea lanes. The U.S. Navy exists to, among many other things, protect American seagoing trade and threaten that of its enemies. The only potential enemy now is China but the Chinese are far more dependent on trade by sea, both for imports to keep the Chinese population fed and supplied with the raw materials to manufacture the exports to keep its population employed, plus all manner of goods they have become accustomed to consuming. The U.S. is the largest exporter in the world and the American economy is dependent on that trade to maintain the high standards of living Americans have become accustomed to.

For both China and the United States, control of seaborne trade is essential in wartime. American submarines have operated off the Chinese coast since World War II when the Americans began mining the waters around Japan to block essential food imports from Japanese occupied northern China. In the 21st century China is dependent on imports of food, potash fertilizer and other goods. So are the Americans, but not to the extent the Chinese are. America can survive without seaborne trade but modern China cannot. Not only because the Chinese population might starve, but because so many Chinese jobs are dependent on exported goods. China is currently the largest exporter in the world. But China needs the export business more than the customers for these goods do. The rest of the world would miss Chinese exports but they would not starve, despite China being a major exporter of fertilizer. For China it’s mainly about the jobs and large-scale unemployment is something the current communist government cannot tolerate if it wants to remain in power. Before the 20th century China used seaborne trade to bring in luxuries, not essentials. That has changed and China is scrambling to build a navy that can protect its trade routes.

Currently the Americans are easily able to threaten those trade routes and China is having a difficult time coping, particularly as the Americans have local friends and even allies with significant navies and air forces, all of whom the Chinese have unwisely antagonized. Chinese submarines in the central Pacific and even along the American West coast are a possible solution but one that is very difficult to achieve. At the moment China is trying to build submarines and train crews that can operate on the high seas and threaten U.S. Navy operations in the western Pacific and off the Chinese coast. At the same time. Both navies are increasingly arming their submarines with missiles that can be launched from torpedo tubes or Vertical Launch System tubes built into the hull. In the Far East South Korea is doing this with its new submarines.

Since the 1970s, China has been trying to develop and build nuclear submarines competitive with Russian and Western boats. Their latest nuclear submarines, the Type 096 SSN and Type 094 SSBN, appear to have closed the quality and performance gap with similar Russian subs. Except for one item; the Chinese subs are still too noisy and easy for much quieter American SSN attack subs to follow.

This first Chinese Type 091 sub entered service in 1974 after being under construction for nearly a decade. It was retired in 2000 but three of the other four o91 SSNs remained in service, undergoing numerous upgrades. In 2013 Chinese media declared that in 42 years of operation no Chinese nuclear sub has ever suffered a nuclear reactor accident. This was an indirect dig at the Russians, who are the only nation with nuclear subs to have suffered nuclear accidents, in part because most nuclear subs ever built were Russian. During the first 60 years of existence several hundred billion dollars has been spent on developing and building nuclear powered submarines. Some 400 have been built so far, most of them Russian. In 2000 China joined this club and retired its first nuclear submarine, the Type 091 Long March No. 1. This sub was demilitarized. That meant taking it apart to remove the nuclear reactor and then reassembling and cleaning it up for display.

The Chinese navy is modernizing and that means more nuclear subs and modern surface ships. Since 1949, when Communist China came to be, the navy has been organized into three fleets: Northern, Eastern and Southern. Back then the Chinese navy was a coastal defense force. For thousands of years China has been content to have little more than a coast guard, mainly to deal with pirates and smugglers. On only a few occasions there was a high seas or blue water fleet.

Since the 1980s China has become a major importer and exporter and, to protect its growing overseas trade, something China has never had before, needs a blue water navy. Such a navy requires not just experienced sailors but also support ships. These are the tankers, supply, and maintenance ships that can keep warships operational when they are far from China. In the 1990s China began investing heavily in these ships, by 2021 had the largest fleet in the world in terms of numbers of warships, and expected to increase the size of their fleet nearly 30 percent by the end of the decade while the Americans were having problems maintaining the force that China just passed in terms of number of warships, but not yet in total tonnage.

China still has some more fundamental naval needs. For example, China has never demonstrated any talent or enthusiasm for anti-submarine warfare. Considering the number of nuclear and conventional subs arrayed against it, anti-submarine warfare should have higher priority in China. Another serious shortcoming is mine-clearing capability. The Chinese Navy is well equipped to plant mines off hostile shores and in defense of its own waters but there is not a lot of capability to clear enemy mines. Many navies share this shortcoming but for a major maritime trading nation like China, it would be sad to see all that trade shut down by a few hundred naval mines.

China is still addressing anti-submarine warfare/ASM and mine-clearing, but has a modern navy. The three fleets are equipped with modern ships and the composition of each of the three fleets reflect current needs, including dealing with ASM as well as the nearest naval threats. Each fleet has over a hundred aircraft for ASM, recon and fighters for air superiority and bombers carrying anti-ship missiles.

For example, the Northern Fleet faces Korea and southern Japan. The Eastern Fleet faces the East China Sea and Taiwan. The Southern Fleet faces Taiwan and the South China Sea. The Northern Fleet must deal with the two largest and most formidable fleets in the region, South Korea and Japan.

The Eastern Fleet has the longest coastline to defend and the new coast guard comes in handy to help, often using retired and repurposed corvettes. The Eastern Fleet also must assist the Northern Fleet against South Korea and Japan as well as any attack on Taiwan.

The Southern Fleet is currently concentrating on the South China Sea, as well as contributing forces for any attack on Taiwan.

To even the odds, China has built a network of underwater sensors in the South China Sea that is complemented by ASW aircraft and surface ships. South Korea and Japan have similar technology monitoring their coastal waters. The only nation capable of blocking Chinese subs from moving out of the South China Sea is the United States, which has underwater sensors and a large fleet of ASW aircraft. The problem is defeating the Chinese diesel-electric submarine force. China has been trying to build effective SSNs for decades and that is still a work-in-progress. Chinese non-nuclear subs are another matter and they have become world-class.