New sailless SSN (provisional)
- Thread starter ACuriousPLAFan
- Start date
he did further research..
during the Cold War, there was actually the CONFORM program, and the Americans proposed the IDSS program for developing an inflatable casing system as recently as early 2021.
My super rough Google Earth overlay suggests the length might be fine
It does seem quite fat though. Maybe it's just the shadow.
That said, it can be almost certainly confirmed that this is the launch of a submarine, not an already existing one (since it entered the flooded dry dock afterwards). So even if it is not this “09X” submarine, it could still potentially be a 095, which would still be significant news.
Last edited:
I do then wonder how is the pressure hull designed, Oscars had a circular pressure hull with side sponsons of missile launchers all wrapped into a single fat outer hull. If this new submarine has a similar design than it would likely only have VLS on the side, however if it were to have a single large oval pressure hull you could actually have VLS cells across the entire beam. Though that will likely cause structural and weight issues and limit maximum depth which may or may not be important depending on the exact role.
It is also probably important to note that the Oscars were huge twin screw, twin reactor subs, if this thing wants any semblance of speed, it'll likely also adopted a similar propulsion arrangement as the Oscar class. Return of the twin screw subs?
Last edited:
If I squint hard enough, I can sort of see different color rectangular patch running along the centerline of the sub. IF that's indeed a VLS dedicated area of the hull, it'd suggest an oval hull. Which is, of course, quite unusual. And might again indicate a specific mission set, not requiring very deep dives. Which again might infer operational mission area performed quite far away from enemy threat areas? Way too many conjectures, I know.
@para80 I believe your coworkers at Naval News may need to get a couple more and better looks at that boat at Huludao.
I don't think there's much to contend regarding the new-type SSN at Jiangnan (it's the first ever boat and is confirmed, after all), but there seems to be some disagreements regarding the dimensions of this new SSN at Huludao.
I don't think there's much to contend regarding the new-type SSN at Jiangnan (it's the first ever boat and is confirmed, after all), but there seems to be some disagreements regarding the dimensions of this new SSN at Huludao.
Either two SSN(X) were launched simultaneously, or the Jiangnan Shipyard launched one sailless SSN(X), and the Huludao Shipyard launched one 09VA (let's call it that for now).
This is equally bad news for the USN, enough to cause heart palpitations.
An inappropriate comparison. Active sonar has a relative short detection range for submarines; the sail-less design is primarily intended to reduce flow noise and drag during movement.
The tail-less design of fighter jet is intended to reduce the radar cross-section, countering active radar detection.
Since submarine detection at long ranges relies primarily on passive sonar, submarine stealth is achieved mainly by reducing their own acoustic emissions.
So, apparently, and coincidentally, Yankee and Xiyazhou actually talked about the possibility of such a submarine during yesterday’s Guancha stream.
Essentially, they said something along the lines of “the client wants one nuclear attack submarine and one nuclear cruise-missile submarine.” Xiyazhou explicitly mentioned “sail-less.”
So potentially we have a more maneuverable underwater hunter submarine for “close” combat, the 095. And one that is even stealthier and harder to detect, potentially capable of operating independently and staying silent until it launches a salvo of missiles.
Essentially, they said something along the lines of “the client wants one nuclear attack submarine and one nuclear cruise-missile submarine.” Xiyazhou explicitly mentioned “sail-less.”
So potentially we have a more maneuverable underwater hunter submarine for “close” combat, the 095. And one that is even stealthier and harder to detect, potentially capable of operating independently and staying silent until it launches a salvo of missiles.
