09III/09IV (093/094) Nuclear Submarine Thread

[ACuriousPLAFan]

10th August Sentinel imagery appears to show a new launch, but the resolution is shockingly poor even by Sentinel standards.

Yes, the quality is horrifyingly low, almost as if the imagery is pixelated on purpose.

In the meantime, which part of the shipyard did you see the alleged new launch?

View attachment 158095

Launch confirmed per Copernicus satellite imagery dated just yesterday (August 18).

However, due to the low imqgery resolution and also due to the submarine being already in the water (which does hide its actual length), am afraid the exact type of this boat could not be fully ascertained.



Though, attempts at measuring what is visible above the water yielded ~100 meters. So this one might be a new (9th?/10th?) 093B SSN.

 

[ismellcopium]

How far along are the first 2 095s thought to be, any chance it's one of them?

 

[TopolMSS27]

Launch confirmed per Copernicus satellite imagery dated just yesterday (August 18).

However, due to the low imqgery resolution and also due to the submarine being already in the water (which does hide its actual length), am afraid the exact type of this boat could not be fully ascertained.

View attachment 158659

Though, attempts at measuring what is visible above the water yielded ~100 meters. So this one might be a new (9th?/10th?) 093B SSN.

I can confirm it is a 093 (Shang I) that was in there at the beginning of the month:
4/8/25 - dock full, 093 tied up at western end next to the dock gates.
7/8/25 - dock emptied, 093 resting on blue launching barge in the position shown in the 18/8/25 Copernicus Imagery.
10/8/25 - dock empty, larger dock full - Sentinel (unfortunately) shows what looks like same sub in there, so been moved to this location.
18/8/25 - As above in the imagery provided. Over on the western side (old side), one of the docks is flooded with the gates open I think

I wonder if they've now flooded it fully, maybe to take it out and move to the buildings for further work.

And I'm pretty sure we're only at 7 093Bs launched so far - so it would be 8th if new.

 

[TopolMSS27]

Here's the 7/8/25 imagery.

Up until now, there'd been two 093Bs and a 093 on the western side, along with the 094.

As can be seen, the 093Bs and 094 are there still, and the 093 is in the dry dock. I've seen higher res imagery that confirms its the 093.

 

[TopolMSS27]

As i said earlier, the Sentinel 10/8/25 isn't too great but we can see the dry dock and empty launching barge - the dry dock with a low level of water in it.

In the larger dock there does appear to be something to the west of the white block, but this really could be anything. It looks different to the 7/8/25 imagery though and it does measure in at roughly 105 metres ‍

Who knows though.

 

[Maikeru]

I'm not seeing an 093 in the dry dock (or anywhere else), unless you mean the one on the launch barge?

 

[TopolMSS27]

I'm not seeing an 093 in the dry dock (or anywhere else), unless you mean the one on the launch barge?

The launch barge - in the dry dock!

 

[Maikeru]

The launch barge - in the dry dock!

So that means some of the dockyard evolutions we've seen in recent years could have been old boats in for repairs/refits rather than new 093Bs. I had assumed repairs/refits were done at the Western part of the harbour. Do we then know how many 093Bs have in fact been launched to date?

 

[TopolMSS27]

I personally think 7 still - with 8 due very very soon. There are only two 093Bs and the 094 over on the western side which is why I'm thinking the 18/8/25 Sentinel imagery is the 093 again.

I'm just guessing earlier that they may have used the new halls for maintenance - but they certainly have used the launching dry dock for other activities. There was a 094 in there recently.

There is Planet imagery available for the 18th, but at $300 for an image - that's someone else's to get

 

[TopolMSS27]

Now I've been able to go through all the AIS data there may be a better picture as to what has happened there over the last two weeks or so.
I checked from the beginning of the month to today - it takes while, even on full speed playback.

We know that there was a 093 in the launching dry dock on the 4th and there's no activity before then so it must have been put in prior to the beginning of the month.

On 9/8/25, the tugs went to the dock, with Bo Tuo entering, and at around 0615 UTC started dragging the 093 across to the western side - as shown below. It arrived at the western side around an hour later, travelling across at about 1.5 kts.
Bo Chuan escorted all the way.

That then explains the empty dry dock in the 10/8/25 Sentinel imagery above. What ever is in the larger dock is just poor resolution pixels.