New sailless SSN (provisional)

Dante80 said:

I wouldn't be surprised if this was an arsenal ship.

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I thought that was the semi-submersible trimaran though?

This is momentous news. I’m actually more astounded by China’s relentless progress when it comes to this, than with the 6th / next gen fighters.

09-IIIB*, 09-V, 09-VI, 041, and now 09X (dual construction at that). Who on earth is concurrently building 5 different types of nuclear powered submarine.

(*assuming a few more boats still to go in the batch ordered).

I mean, the largest conventional submarine is like what, 3000 something tons?

This new submarine seems like it's close to 10k tons.

00CuriousObserver said:

I mean, the largest conventional submarine is like what, 3000 something tons?

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That title actually belongs to the sole 032 SSB with a submerged displacement of ~6600 tons.

00CuriousObserver said:

I mean, the largest conventional submarine is like what, 3000 something tons?

This new submarine seems like it's close to 10k tons.

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Submerged, the largest regular class SSK is in excess of 4,000t

This thing if it's a 10m ish diameter with a 120m length, would probably be somewhere between 8000-9000t submerged
(Virginia is 10m, 115m respectively, Block V at 10m, 140m length is 10,000t)

The point is that while this is not definitive proof, the trend of course points to a nuclear one.

Also Ayi's comment:

My take is that the British are just easily impressed, the same way they keep acting amazed every time they see a giant grouper.

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Blitzo said:

And being nuke qualified has obvious consequences for other big ticket projects too..

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In fact this is exactly the much bigger news to me ... since it could indeed be w clear hint for something bigger or at least the capabilities to do so!

Just throwing in my 2 cents in the speculation bucket, an anti sub attack specialist (09V) + a multirole sub (09X) would make for an interesting subsurface fleet comp. Something analogous to a Seawolf + Virginia fleet in an alternate universe where the US didn't balk at Seawolf prices.

CaribouTruth said:

Judorowing in my 2 cents in the speculation bucket, an anti sub attack specialist (09V) + a multirole sub (09X) would make for an interesting subsurface fleet comp. Something analogous to a Seawolf + Virginia fleet in an alternate universe where the US didn't balk at Seawolf prices.

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Though 09V still has VLS, I don't see what conventional role 09V can't do and require a completely new submarine to do outside of special mission.

GTI said:

09-IIIB*, 09-V, 09-VI, 041, and now 09X (dual construction at that). Who on earth is concurrently building 5 different types of nuclear powered submarine.

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IMO, I sort of doubt the continued production of 041 now that the stream of tenders for nuclear submarine from JN turned out to be this instead of 041.

Wuhan hasn't done anything remotely related to 041 for about two years and tenders also don't show any further orders. If they do intend on mass production, we sure haven't seen a single shred of evidence.

mack8 said:

Any hint from the chinese fora as to the role of the new SSN yet?

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Well a data point is in last night's Guancha livestream, Yankee and Xiyazhou were discussing SSN and SSGN in light of the recent 2nd hand sub news for AUKUS. I recall they discussed at length the very long Virginia Block V and concluded that sub captains were probably right in that adding too many capabilities to SSN like CPS and USS Jimmy Carter style special operation modules distract them from their primary role.


Perhaps they had this black baguette in mind when they said that. Ayi just now was also hinting similar:

"It's special purpose"

So maybe one type of SSN for pure attack sub role, and one type for "all the other odd jobs that you really shouldn't add onto SSN but nevertheless needs doing".

Some are paying attention to the stealthiness of the sailless design


Just as removing a fighter’s vertical tails can improve its radar stealth, removing a submarine’s sail can also reduce its echo return against active sonar.

A smaller sail-less design, probably some kind of test boat, had surfaced before. Now it looks like the technology may have matured, since they have actually gone straight to building one this large.