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China has reportedly lost its newest nuclear-powered attack submarine, right as Beijing was attempting to make major strides in expanding its navy and developing its weapons program.
Knewz.com has learned that the sinking of the new-gen nuclear submarine has only recently been disclosed, although the accident happened in late May or early June 2024.
While it is not known whether the submarine sank with the nuclear fuel on board, experts outside the United States have not ruled out the possibility.
It has been reported that the nuclear-powered submarine that China lost belonged to the Zhou Class and was one of the first ones to feature an X-shaped stern—known to ensure "more maneuvering force and minimizes the chance of an accidental dive compared to the traditional cruciform-shaped design."
According to reports, the underwater vessel was built by the state-owned company China State Shipbuilding Corp. and was last seen docked at a pier on the Yangtze River back in May 2024.
According to subsequent satellite photos, huge cranes were deployed to salvage the remains of the nuclear sub after it sank.
Experts believe the sinking of the new nuclear submarine would be a significant hiccup in China's efforts to modernize and expand its navy fleet and achieve "maritime superiority."
Brent Sadler, a retired U.S. Navy nuclear submarine officer and a senior research fellow at the Washington-based think tank Heritage Foundation, commented on the incident, "The sinking of a new nuclear sub that was produced at a new yard will slow China’s plans to grow its nuclear submarine fleet."
"This is significant," Sadler added.
It has been reported that the Chinese navy tried to conceal the fact that their new nuclear sub had undergone a premature demise.
It was mentioned in a report by The Wall Street Journal that the first public information about the incident came from a string of social media posts by former U.S. submarine officer Thomas Shugart pointing out "unusual crane activity" captured in satellite images.
"Can you imagine a U.S. nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government hushes it up and doesn’t tell anybody about it? I mean, Holy Cow!" Shugart said in a later statement.
A senior American defense official stated that it is "not surprising" that the Chinese navy tried to "conceal the fact that their new first-in-class nuclear-powered attack submarine sank pierside."
"In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defense industry, which has long been plagued by corruption," the official added.
Although Shugart could tell that the incident involved a submarine, he did not know it was nuclear-powered at the time.
The former U.S. Navy officer added in its comments that although the submarine has been salvaged, it will take quite a while to get it up and running again. "The whole boat would be full of water... You’d have to clean out all the electronics. The electric motors may need to be replaced. It would be a lot of work," he said.
According to a 2023 report by the U.S. Department of Defense, China currently operates 48 diesel-electric-powered submarines, out of which 21 belong to the conventional Yuan class.
It is worth noting that in July 2024 – a month or so after the nuclear-powered sub reportedly sank – open-source satellite images spotted a suspected new class of diesel-electric submarine at the Wuchang shipyard in China.
In the satellite images, the submarine seemed to appear bigger than the usual Yuan-class Chinese submarines.
While the Yuan-class submarines usually have a length of nearly 253 feet, the new submarine was seemingly 272 to 279 feet long.
An analysis of the new submarine revealed at the time that it featured an x-shaped stern, much like the nuclear sub that sank—leading experts to believe that it belonged to a new class of Chinese submarines.
Shugart had written a thread of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, about this apparently previously unseen class of submarine.
"Comparing the Hangor [Hangor II-class submarine] with images of earlier 039A class boats—and the new boat—the difference is plain to see. The new boat appears substantially longer, and looking at multiple images of it, also appears to have an X-stern, a feature not seen before on any Chinese submarine," Shugart wrote in one of the posts.
"Even the new-ish type 039C [one of the newer Yuan-class submarine models]... doesn't have an X-stern," Shugart mentioned in another post on X.
Maritime security analyst H.I. Sutton attributed the bigger hull length of the supposed new class of submarine to the possibility of vertical launch tubes onboard, it has been reported.
Vertical launch tubes are a standard weapons system in naval vessels consisting of several cells capable of firing a wide range of missiles.
Sutton's belief has been echoed by Chinese navy expert Alex Luck who also believes that China is joining the bandwagon of installing vertical launch tubes on conventional submarines.
It has been reported that China intends to make significant developments in undersea warfare technology – a sector where the U.S. has been the brightest shining star – to counter the American Navy if it comes to aid Taiwan in the event of a conflict.