Submarines: Chinese Submariners Strain for Supremacy
28th May 2024
The Chinese Navy has 78 submarines but 90 percent of them are conventional diesel-electric designs. China has some nuclear powered attack and SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) submarines. In contrast the U.S. Navy has 63 submarines in service, all nuclear powered and 18 of them are Ohio Class SSBNs (Ballistic Missile Carrying submarines). The rest are SSNs (Nuclear powered attack submarines). The United States is in the midst of building over sixty new Virginia class SSNs and preparing to build a new class of SSBNs. The U.S. Navy has established and maintains high standards for officers and sailors on its nuclear subs. Americans 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 for Chinese Naval officers. 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 has been 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.