Pentagon confirms a ‘new class’ of Chinese nuclear sub sank pierside

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has confirmed the submarine that sank pierside at a Wuhan shipyard is a “new class” of nuclear vessels being developed by the Chinese navy.

“It is unclear if this shipyard is certified to handle nuclear materials. As such, we do not know if the submarine reactor was fueled at the time of incident, or if it is going to be relocated to a known nuclear-certified facility for its initial fueling, such as Huludao Shipyard, which has built all previous PLA Navy nuclear submarine classes,” according to a military official.

The submarine’s sinking was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, which credited Tom Shugart, a former US Navy submariner and currently an associate at the Center for a New American Security, a DC think tank, with spotting unusual activity at the shipyard in satellite imagery.

“Everyone involved in reporting this clearly understands that nuclear submarines had not — yet — been built in Wuhan, and that this was a new development: a significant expansion of nuclear submarine production outside of Huludao,” Shugart said of the WSJ’s reporting in a tweet.

The majority of China’s current submarine fleet is non-nuclear powered, but is known to operate at least six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and six nuclear-powered attack submarines, according to the Congressional Research Service [PDF].

“The PLAN’s submarine force is expected to grow to 65 units by 2025 and 80 units by 2035 despite the ongoing retirement of older hulls due to an expansion of submarine construction capacity,” the CRS report said, citing DOD assessments.

A defense official on Thursday told reporters the incident raises “obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality [as well as] deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defense industry-which has long been plagued by corruption.”

“It’s not surprising that the PLA Navy would try to conceal the fact that their new first-in-class nuclear-powered attack submarine sank pierside,” the defense official added.