Chinese submarines thread

[Skywatcher]

It'd be nice to have a solid figure on how deep the submarine went, how long it stayed and how long it took to descend and ascend.

If I was the PLAN, I'd be placing more emphasis on stealth and then speed instead of depth. The waters around China aren't exactly the Mariana Trench.

 

[crobato]

It'd be nice to have a solid figure on how deep the submarine went, how long it stayed and how long it took to descend and ascend.

If I was the PLAN, I'd be placing more emphasis on stealth and then speed instead of depth. The waters around China aren't exactly the Mariana Trench.

The waters around China is still more than deep enough, actually by a factor of 3x or 4x, against the record depth done by any military submarine, which is around 1000 meters, done by a Russian sub, and one is that is made with Titanium.

Reaching 300 to 500 meters operationally is the norm, otherwise you are getting into the rule of diminishing returns per investment.

 

[crobato]

New updates on GE. This one is at the sub base at Xizhou, serving the ESF.

Sorry no 093 here. There are seven subs in the picture. Going from left to right.

1. Kilo
2. Yuan
3. Yuan
4. Song
5. Ming
6. Ming
7. Yuan

First thing first. The Song and the Yuan are about the same length, close to 75m approx. But the distance between the snout to the sail for the Song is roughly about 15m, the one for the Yuan is like 17m+, similar in proportion to the Kilo, also in the picture. Except that these subs have planes on the sail, where the Kilo doesn't.

You can also see from the shadows of the sails they have a more rectangular look, while the Song is a bit more squarish.

I think this picture is a new thing for me because it does appear to confirm the presence of a Yuan flotilla in the ESF, where I thought there may only be one which is located at the SSF base in Sanya.

The second is the sighting of a Song in this location, where previously the Songs are only located at Daxing Dao for the ESF. This might confirm that there are two Song flotillas (each for four subs) with the ESF rather than only one. NSF and SSF has one flotilla each.

 

[crobato]

Now as to why I think there are Yuans in the picture, please note the matching of proportions here are perfect.

 

[tphuang]

New pictures of Yuan coming from Shanghai. This should be one of the new ones, maybe the one that we had photos for a couple of days ago. More up close pictures of the sail and tail. TAS?

Also, this is kind of interesting, someone did a comparison to the lead Yuan and the second one we see. And I guess we saw more changes with the 2 in Wuhan. Anyhow, here they are. I'm sure there are more.

 

[crobato]

The changes appear to be mostly refinements. The changes in the limber holes might make it quieter, and that for the tail for better control and may reduce wake presence.

 

[Violet Oboe]

The sub is showing a very clean ´finish´.

The outer coating appears to be somewhat darker than on the other units but this could be due to the lighting environment. Nevertheless there could have been a modification of plating and/or surface coating.
What do you think, crobato?

 

[crobato]

It is probably because of the lighting that the finish looks darker. Its also probably because it hasn't been in the water much, so the river silt isn't sticking there yet.

I don't really see that much changes, all the changes are rather minor adjustments or refinements. That may suggest that the original design, at least from the outside, is well enough that no major changes outside is required.

The tail is the part that seems rather most different. It seems longer and deeper which adds to the curiosity if there are any changes on the propeller as well.

Addendum. After comparing it to the old Yuan, the tail seems the same as well. So is the previous assessment on the wake sensor. They're the same on the old Yuan, but still different from the Song. The new Yuan also has what looks like to be electrooptical sensors on top of the sail.

At least what we know compared to the Song, the Yuan differs in the wake sensor and in the passive flank sonar arrangement.

 

[maozedong]

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more pic for Yuan, I don't know they are the same or not.

 

[crobato]

Some of the pictures are the same but there are additional ones here.

These pics are all over the big China military forums.

If the sat pics are showing the Yuan/Song to be around 75m in length, that's quite big for an SSK, slightly shorter than a Collins. The Kilo and the Amur is only about 66m.

Don't let the Yuan's nose fool you. Once you get past the nose, the Yuan's proportions are very different from the Kilo. The length from the bow to the sail is shorter, while the Kilo's sail is nearly the sub's center.