(3) China Is Really, Maybe, Going To Do It This Time. July 31, 2013.
http://strategypage.com/htmw/htsub/articles/20130731.aspx
("US intelligence agencies believe that China will finally start combat patrols of its SSBNs (ballistic missile carrying nuclear powered boat, also called 'boomers') next year, something China has never done before despite decades of effort. This prediction comes despite Taiwanese intelligence officials revealing early this year that China’s Type 94 SSBNs had not yet been commissioned into service. But at the same time a Type 94 class sub was seen recently undergoing what appeared to be sea trials. Taiwanese officials also stated that the JL-2 SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missiles) that the Type 94 is designed to carry is still undergoing testing")
Note:
(a) Rogge Chen and Sofia Wu, China Yet to Deploy 094 Sub, JL-2 & DF-41 Missiles: Security Head. Central News Agency, Apr 15, 2013.
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201304150027.aspx
(b) "Type 93 class SSN (nuclear powered attack sub), which looks a lot like the three decade old Russian Victor III class SSN design. The first Type 93 entered service in 2006."
Victor-class submarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor-class_submarine
(section 1.3 Victor III: entered service in 1979; 25 were produced until 1991)
(c) "Taking a SSN design and adding extra compartments to hold the ballistic missiles is an old trick, pioneered by the United States in the 1950s to produce the first ever SSBNs."
(i) USS Nautilus (SSN-571)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nautilus_(SSN-571)
(world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine; launched in 1954; as an attack submarine with torpedoes)
(ii) ballistic missile submarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_missile_submarine
("The world's first ballistic missile submarine was a Soviet converted Zulu class submarine equipped with a single ballistic missile launch tube in its sail [with the first successful launch on surface in 1955]. The first SSBN class was a Skipjack class fast attack submarine with a 130 ft (40 m) missile compartment welded into the middle--thus turned into George Washington-class submarine whose lead ship USS George Washington while submerged successfully launched a two-staged, solid-fuel nuclear armed-capable Polaris in 1960")
(iii) Norman Polmar, The Polaris; A Revolutionary system and concept. Colloquium on Contemporary History Peoject (Seminar 9, 1994), Naval Historical Center, http://www.history.navy.mil/colloquia/cch9d.html
Quote:
"The US Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile was not the world's first sea-based strategic missile system. In September 1955, the Soviet Union launched an SS-1B Scud-A ballistic missile from a surfaced submarine. * * * The world's first operational, submarine-launched ballistic missile was the SS-N-4 (Soviet R-13), a surface-launched, 350-nautical-mile ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead [also while surfaced, see next quotation]. When it became operational in 1959, it was the world's first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system.
"The world's first SLBM submarines were the Soviet Zulu-class, diesel-electric-propelled vessels armed with two SS-N-4 missiles. These undersea craft, converted to the SLBM role in 1958-1959, were followed by the new-construction Hotel (nuclear) and Golf (diesel) classes, each of which carried three missiles. The first missiles, armed with a one-MT warhead, had a range of approximately 350 nautical miles. Significantly, the submarine had to surface to launch the SS-N-4 missiles. In contrast, the U.S. Polaris submarines each carried 16 missiles. Further, the U.S. missiles could be launched while the submarine remained fully submerged and were believed to be more accurate than the Soviet weapons. |