I think they clearly made up the number designation. Wikipedia lists Long March 18 as Type 093A but you can see from the picture right above that No.18 is one of Type 094 SSBNs.
09III/09IV (093/094) Nuclear Submarine Thread
- Thread starter SinoSoldier
- Start date
Not so much concerned about whether they got the exact type right but by the three "missing" hulls - LM15-17.
There are no missing hulls. LM15, 16 are Type 093 variant. Xi took on board on them for inspection in 2018.
You can see Long March 16 at 1:40 in the first clip.
Long March 17 is likely to be another Type 094 we haven't seen yet.
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by78
General
I wouldn't trust Wikipedia that much. Yes, the Chinese language version is better on military matters, but I would still take it with a grain of salt. The high opsec surrounding nuclear subs and the lack of painted hull numbers make it rather difficult to identify unique hulls and tabulate the sub fleet.
OK so that would mean 8 093s and 7 094s (including A variants) currently in service?
I would say 9 093s and 6 094s but not so sure about it. It doesn't really matter that much since China doesn't rely on naval nuclear submarine anyway.
antiterror13
Brigadier
Why would you have more SSBN than SSN ?
Why not? They haven't built 093A recently, because they are just too noisy. On the other hand, 094s are a critical part of the nuclear triad.