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Thread: The Type-09I is notorious for its noise. But it's been a fascinating journey for the PLA Navy's nuclear submarine program. Back then, Mao Zedong insisted that PRC must have nuke boats, "even if it takes 10,000 years" to do it. https://twitter.com/PDChina/status/1342653741510479879
So PRC designers started from scratch, drawing insights from their existing conventional boats program that's heavily influenced by the Soviet designs, and scouring whatever available but limited information out there including through open sources. 1/
And one interesting snippet was how the 1:200-scale plastic model sub (the George Washington class) from American company Renwal, which was appraised by PRC designers to have "high precision" details, helped in no small way in the design of the PLA Navy's nuke boat. 2/
In a dive test in the Bohai Gulf sometime in the first half of 1972, the rudders on the lead Type-09I SSN failed, and only a timely action to emergency-blow the sub to surface saved the lives of everyone on board. 3/
The PLA Navy's nuke sub program comes a long way. It might be easy to diss it for the noise and safety records. But clearly PRC designers demonstrated their ingenuity and tenacity to push through at all costs. Now flush with lavish funding, this program gets a boost. 4/
This should be worrisome development for navies who traditionally possess an undersea edge against the PLA Navy. Beijing has steadily, if also quietly, been investing in it. The qualitative gap will close in time, and quantity becomes the next frontier. 5/
The JMSDF and USN, which have collectively a longstanding track record in anti-sub and undersea ops, will have to contend with this closing qualitative gap and, in the face of possible quantitative disadvantage, needs to forge ahead to further widen this qualitative gap. 6/
It's not inconceivable for the U.S. Navy and allied navies, to have to contend with not only vastly more capable PLA Navy subs, on a boat-for-boat basis, but likely more of them. It makes ASW collaboration even more crucial to win a future undersea campaign. END
