With the most numerous navy in the world in terms of hull count today, the Peoples liberation army navy (PLAN) entered into the nuclear submarine club rather late in the game, only entering it in 1970 with the launch of their type 091 (Han) class of submarines.
These boats like the first generation of submarines from the Soviet Union were modest affairs, by the time of their launch they were technically obsolete.
But that didn’t stop the Chinese from launching five boats between 1970 and 1990. The boats have numbers rather than names 401 being the first boat and 405 being the last, all are known in China as Long March.
The Design
The design dates back to the 1950’s and the Chinese nuclear program which set about building nuclear weapons and reactors as late as 1958, under the guidance of Chairman Mao, in pursuing this technology China ultimately became the first Asian power to build and acquire nuclear submarines.
The type 091 was designed by Peng Shuli he is known in China today as the father of the Nuclear submarine force.
The Hans were built in the Bohai shipyards Huludao this meant the Chinese would ultimately have a ship yard capable of building nuclear submarines, which means they could pass on the knowledge to other yards and thus create an industry.
The Chinese had up until the 1980’s been heavily reliant on Soviet export boats namely the Project 613 Whiskey, Project 633 Romeo, and not forgetting the Project 629 Golf class which gave China a start on learning how to build missile submarines as well as the project 877 Kilo class most of which have Chinese sub class derivatives.
The Han herself is an average sized attack boat at 98 meters long, 10 meters wide, having a draft of 7.5 meters she displaces around 5,500tons submerged.
The Han is powered by an older derivative of the second-generation commercial ACP-100 pressurized water reactor which gives off around 35,000hp or 165mw which turns a turbine which powers a turbo electric motor.
We know this reactor is in turn is built of French reactor designs which were sold to the Chinese in the late 1960’s after the Sino -Soviet split and the closer ties the China had with the west at that time.
Unlike the western reactors the Chinese reactor does not use highly enriched uranium it uses a much lesser grade, this ultimately means the submarines are refueled several times in their life span along with many other things not up to par.
Weapons
The Han is a modest affair she is designed to attack shipping just like the first generation boats of all the nuclear submarine countries of the time. The Han sports six 533mm (21in) torpedo tubes for YU1, YU2 and YU3 as well as some modified derivatives and modified torpedoes she can also carry 20 reloads, as well as this she can also carry up to 32 MAO-4 mines if no torpedoes are loaded, indeed also a mix can be carried.
While the boats have some teeth we do know that there have been modifications to the last three boats in terms of weapons capability, it has been noted that while the Han up until around 1995 could not launch any missiles, it has been observed from the west that at least one boat at this time had been upgraded to carry the YJ82 anti-ship missile which is extremely likely to be a copy of the French Exocet and it is capable of being launched submerged, thus its also likely the other two boats will have followed the same upgrade.
Sensors
Chinas ability to build and operate their own sonars were somewhat of a hit and miss affair, in the 1970’s after the Soviet-Sino split the Chinese were given little help with weapons and sensor technology from the Soviet Union.
This lead to a closer relationship to the west for a while, and as such France stepped in and help supply reactor components as well as sonar technology.
The French supplied China with some Sonar technology from 1970 until 1993, the Han was likely fitted with a export version of the DUUX-5 passive only Sonar around 1974. This sonar operates between 2Khz and 15Khz it has a range of around 75km, it is also hull mounted, what is known is that it is also equips the type 093 Xia class SSBN.
The indigenous Type H/SQ2-262B which would replace the type 603 sonar were also fitted in the boats in the earlier years, these sonars were not as good as the French export sonars.
The Han also carries active sonar in the form of the Chinese made SQZ-3 as well as a back up passive sonar SQC-1, this is about as comparable to the Soviets TAMIR sonar system this in turn dates back to the 1950’s.
Realistically the Chinese have had a tough time up until the early 2000’s in acquiring foreign plans in order to build suitable replacements for their ageing equipment both in terms of platforms and sensors.
This has led to a lot of espionage specifically in France, United Kingdom and the United States. This is in order for the Chinese to obtain current effective sonars as well as other equipment which can be copied and built-in china.
We are aware in the west that a lot of technology has been successfully copied and has been seen deployed in the Chinese navy the major coup came about that china was doing this in 2007 with the capture of the spy Chi Mak.
The Engineering
Acoustically the Han is an incredibly loud submarine and no wonder with a small five blade screw, designed to ultimately take on the Thresher / Permit class of the United States (which is its peer competitor boat) its clear the Han could never hope to match even this class of boat.
What you notice inside the submarine is lack of rafting of the equipment this means vibrations transmit directly through the hull and casing and out into the sea.
On top of that with the design almost wedged into the 1950’s the boats lack proper radiation shielding thus these boats are not only noisy but unhealthy for the 75 man crew.
On the outside however some effort has been made with the introduction of coating the submarines in a anechoic coating using the traditional tile method, this has reduced some of the noise but they remain quite probably the loudest SSN’s out there, which leads them to be easily picked up by western listening devices.
Incidents and Today
The boats themselves have been involved in several incidents over the years, including attempting to sneak up on a US carrier group in the 1990’s.
Another incident in 2004 saw a Han class enter Japanese territorial waters between the Ishigaki and Okinawa islands which put the Japanese Navy on alert for the first time since world war two, this forced the Chinese government to make a formal public apology.
The Pakistan government also tried to acquire a Han class submarine on lease for $63 million in 1993 in order to combat the Indian Navy which at the time was leasing the Chakra a Soviet project 670 Charlie class submarine, the request was ultimately denied, it’s clear though that this could have only allowed the Pakistani navy to gain experience with this type of submarine as the Chakra was much superior to the Han even in the 1980’s.
As the Han is now nearing the end of its service life we can see the long march to progress continues, the successor class are of much better quality and capability.
The first two boats of the Han class are now decommissioned, the first boat the 401 is a museum in Qingdao the other is Decommissioned likely pending disposal, boats 403,404 and 405 are likely to decommission in the early to mid-2020’s.
Other readings and useful links
Find out more about the museum and submarine here at museumships
https://museumships.us/china/long-march-1
Project 627 the soviet unions first nuclear submarine
https://www.navygeneralboard.com/the-first-soviet-nuclear-submarines/
Project 611 Zulu class submarines the first submarine to fire a ballistic missile
https://www.navygeneralboard.com/project-611-zulu-class-submarines/
A walkthrough of a Soviet Foxtrot class submarine
https://www.navygeneralboard.com/a-cold-war-warrior-a-walkthrough-of-a-foxtrot-class-submarine/
A walkthrough of an SSBN
https://www.navygeneralboard.com/a-walkthrough-of-a-ssbn/
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