Why America Should Fear China's Submarine Fleet

Bill Gertz

Security, Asia

US Navy submariners are closely watching advances in Chinese submarine forces that remain lacking in terms of capabilities and quietness of American submarines that have decades of experience operating around the world.

Te large-scale buildup of China’s naval forces is the most visible part of a major rearmament campaign that has been under way for more than a decade. But Chinese development of modern and increasingly quiet submarines poses one of the more serious strategic challenges for the United States and other nations concerned about Beijing’s growing hegemony in Asia.

The increasing size of the People’s Liberation Army Navy fleet of surface vessels captures most international attention, based on the sheer numbers and advanced weapons on an array of new warships.

Most notable among them is a refurbished Soviet-era aircraft carrier – the Liaoning, which was the first of its kind commissioned into the PLA Navy in 2012 – and development of its first indigenous ski-jump carrier, a vessel with a sloped flight deck.

 

China’s first domestically constructed carrier will be commissioned in 2020. Coincidentally, the Liaoning was a refurbishment of the Varyag, a Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, which has a sloped flight deck. The difference between the two is size, with the China-made one smaller.

Since 2004, six new PLA Navy classes of indigenous warships – destroyers, frigates and corvettes – were deployed. The ships include some that appear similar in design to the US Navy’s Aegis destroyers.

Less noticed but perhaps more strategically significant is China’s growing force of submarines, including both conventional and nuclear armed vessels. As with other Chinese strategic and conventional military forces, submarines are a growing threat for one key characteristic – their missiles.

Most of China’s submarines are older and relatively noisy – and thus easy to detect, track and destroy by US attack submarines. But the force is being upgraded and made more lethal by the introduction of new submarines armed either with nuclear or cruise missiles.

The Pentagon’s latest annual report on the Chinese military sheds new light on China’s submarine buildup.

Retired US Navy Captain Jim Fanell, a former Pacific Fleet intelligence director, says the report shows the high priority China has placed on undersea warfare.

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