Where Did The Chinese Get Nuclear Submarines?
They had trouble building a diesel sub 10 years ago.
My guess is that it's due to Bill and Hillary Clinton's
fire sale of nuclear info to their Chinese spy friends.
Chinese build secret nuclear submarine base
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 5:33PM BST 01/05/2008
China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that
could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the
region, it can be disclosed.
Satellite imagery, passed to The Daily Telegraph, shows that a
substantial harbour has been built which could house a score of nuclear
ballistic missile submarines and a host of aircraft carriers.
* Satellite image of the harbour: click to enlarge
In what will be a significant challenge to US Navy dominance and to
countries ringing the South China Sea, one photograph shows China’s
latest 094 nuclear submarine at the base just a few hundred miles from
its neighbours.
Other images show numerous war****ps moored to long jettys and a network
of underground tunnels at the Sanya base on the southern tip of Hainan
island.
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Of even greater concern to the Pentagon are massive tunnel entrances,
estimated to be 60ft high, built into hillsides around the base. Sources
fear they could lead to caverns capable of hiding up to 20 nuclear
submarines from spy satellites.
The US Department of Defence has estimated that China will have five 094
nuclear submarines operational by 2010 with each capable of carrying 12
JL-2 nuclear missiles.
The images were obtained by Janes Intelligence Review after the
periodical was given access to imagery from the commercial satellite
company DigitalGlobe.
Analysts for the respected military magazine suggest that the base could
be used for "expeditionary as well as defensive operations" and would
allow the submarines to "break out to launch locations closer to the US".
It would now be "difficult to ignore" that China was building a major
naval base where it could house its nuclear forces and increase it
"strategic capability considerably further afield".
The development so close to the sea lanes vital to Asian economies "can
only cause concern far beyond these straits".
Military analysts believe that China’s substantial build up of its
forces is gaining pace put has remained hidden from the world in the
build-up to the Olympics.
China has diverted much of its resources from the huge Peoples
Liberation Army to the navy, air force and missile development.
An old Russian aircraft carrier, bought by Beijing for "leisure
activities" has been picked over by naval architects who hope to
"reverse engineer" the ****p.
Within the next five to 10 years the Peoples Liberation Navy is expected
to build up to six carriers which will also coincide with the Royal
Navy’s construction of two major carriers.
The location of the base off Hainan will also give the submarines access
to very deep water exceeding 5,000 metres within a few miles, making
them even harder to detect.
Britain’s Trident submarines have to remain on the surface when they
leave Faslane in north east Scotland and cannot dive to depth until
outside the Irish Sea.
While it has been known that China might be developing an underground
base at Sanya, the pictures provide the first proof of the base’s
existence and the rapid progress made.
Two 950 metre piers and three smaller ones would be enough to
accommodate two carrier strike groups or amphibious assault ****ps.
Christian Le Miere, editor for Jane's Intelligence Review, said the
complex underlined Beijing’s plan “to assert tighter control over this
region".
"This is a challenge to any hegemonic power, particularly the US which
still remains dominant in the region."
So far China has offered no public explanation for its building at Sanya.
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