China's Submarines and Drones

choi

(1) Submarines: China Keeps Trying. Strategy Page, Nov 5, 2013
http://strategypage.com/htmw/htsub/articles/20131105.aspx

My comment:
(a) Paragraph 2 may be, in my view, a showoff by US/Japan of 全程掌握 over China's submarine moves.
(b) "The Hans [091] are hopelessly out of date, but are the only SSNs China had until the new 093 [NATO reporting name: Shang] class SSNs begin to appear in 2002. This class was also obsolete at birth and the first of the new Type 095 {no NATO name yet] class was launched in 2010 and is expected to enter service in 2015."
(i) These are all nuclear attack submarines.
(ii) There is a typo in teh last paragraph or paragraph 3: "There are 4 newer Shang (Type 083) class SSNs in service, but these are still pretty noisy."   

It should be "093," not "083."

(c) "Meanwhile China continues to develop diesel-electric boats. The Song/Yuan class subs are meant to replace the elderly Mings. Then four new Ladas will give Chinese submarine builders some ideas and goals for future subs of this type. Unlike the United States, China is planning on using both nuclear and non-nuclear subs for quite some time."
(i) For Ming-class submarine, see Romeo-class submarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo-class_submarine

Quote:

"The Project 633 class [in Russia] (known in the West by its NATO reporting name as the Romeo class) is a class of Soviet diesel-electric submarine, built in the 1950s [in Russia].

section 2 Chinese Romeo class submarines and their derivatives: "The Chinese variant is known as the Type 033 Romeo. A total of 84 Type 033 submarines were built in China from 1962 to 1984, plus several exported to other countries. * * * In the 1970s, China's Wuhan Ship Development and Design Institute (701 Institute) built an improved submarine based on the Type 033 hull, named Type 035 Ming

(ii) Type 039 submarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_039_submarine
(NATO code name Song class; a class of diesel-electric submarines; the first to be fully developed within China; In service 1993--present; Preceded by: Type 035 (Ming class), Succeeded by: Type 041 (Yuan class) )
(iii) Choi Chi-yuk, China to Buy Lada-class Subs, Su-35 Fighters From Russia. Mar 25, 2013
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/a ... fighters-submarines
("China Central Television said the two countries had reached the framework agreement before President Xi Jinping started his maiden visit as head of state to Russia on Friday")

Well, we all recall clearly that Russia's state media came out and denied it.

choi

(2) China Unleashes UAVs Against Japan. Strategy Page, Nov 4, 2013
http://strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/20131104.aspx
(On September 9th a Chinese BZK-005 UAV approached Okinawa. Japanese interceptors scrambled. BZK-005 turned back before it entered Japanese air space (anything over Okinawa or up to 22 kilometers from the coast)

Note:
(a) This is old news; the only new wrinkle is to correctly identify the Chinese drone. The place at issue was 钓鱼岛. At the time Japan thought the UAV was 翼龙, which Jane's corrected by pointing to BZK-005 (which has no Chinese name).
(b) airspace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspace
("By international law, the notion of a country's sovereign airspace corresponds with the maritime definition of territorial waters as being 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) out from a nation's coastline. Airspace not within any country's territorial limit is considered international, analogous to the 'high seas' in maritime law")