I am having real trouble deciphering which building is part of the hull production process. And even if I knew that, who is to say that some of the subsystems aren't also partially assembled on site, in a special hall?
When it comes to Newport news, final assembly hall is some 11,900 m2. I disregarded the supplementary building as it was not present back in 1980s, so even without it the pace of 2 subs in a year was achieved. The rest of the buildings marked blue are what seems to me as likely to be part of the sub building process. Their combined area is 24,000 m2. Of course, perhaps not all indeed are part of the sub building. Or perhaps some other, more distant, building is part of it.
Old Huludao facilty is also hard to gauge for me. The one building we know was part of the process is in itself quite large. Almost 39,000 m2. But A) was the entire building dedicated for subs? And B) are there other buildings out there which were part of the process? PErhaps those marked in orange in the image? They have combined area of 40,000 m2. I'd say it's unlikely they're part of the process but is there a way to confirm it?
The new Huludao facility is not easy either. It doesn't seem complete. Final assembly is large, at over 39,000 m2. The possible part assembly building is almost as big at close to 35,000 m2.
but what about other buildings? Those marked in orange have combined area of 26,000 m2. And then there are those which seem to be under construction. When finished they may add another 20 to 30 thousand m2. How to tell if they're part of the building process?
Without that info, it's very hard to make an apples to apples comparison.
Newport News SEEMS to have up to 44,000 m2 of construction area.
Old Bohai facility seems to have up to 39,000 m2 of area. Or possibly double that number, though that's very doubtful.
New Bohai facility seems to have at least 74,000 m2 of area, with possibly/probably 25-55 thousand m2 more, when it's fully finished.
Newport News did manage to do those 2 subs per year with its area. Old Bohai, if ALL 39,000 m2 was used for subs, did 6-7 SSNs and around 5 SSBNs since the first launch in 2002. SSBNs were larger than SSNs but then again, LA class subs were larger than 093. So something like 11-12 subs in 16 years for Bohai. They may have been slower due to less experience, slower due to less PLAN requirement or the facility perhaps wasn't all used for subs.
New Bohai facility, even if just 80 to 90 thousand m2 area is assumed, is basically twice the size of Newport News. Would that mean that up to 4 SSNs per year would be achievable, if not SSBNs are accounted for?
I am very aware all this is so far from a scientific method of deduction that it's mostly a worthless brain exercise. Still, one wonders. Though, if actual parity in production capacity is seeked, then the new facility alone won't be enough for China, as US Electric Boat yard is easily twice the capacity of Newport News. so perhaps with old Bohai and New Bohai facility combined something close to parity in capacity could be achieved. But, as far as I've on this forum, the old facility is going to be repurposed for commercial shipbuilding.
If it comes to a new cold war arms race and if USN gets a budget to do it, two US facilites could easily do 8+ submarines (SSN and SSBN) per year.
