Preface
In the last century, the mainland's submarine technology was still in its infancy, and it was difficult to match the advanced anti-submarine forces of the US and Japanese navies.
At that time, as long as the mainland's submarine entered the Pacific waters, it would be the first to be discovered by Japan, and the same was true when the mainland's submarine met the US Navy.
But with the passage of time, the situation is also changing, the mainland has jumped from being provoked to becoming a world leader in the field of submarines, what has the development of submarines on the mainland experienced?
Difficulties in the initial period of the development of Chinese nuclear submarines
In the 70s of the 20th century, the Chinese Navy began to independently develop nuclear submarines, but at that time there was no technical experience in this area in China, and could only import a small part of the technical data and prototypes from the Soviet Union for exploration and development.
Among them, the first batch of Type 091 nuclear submarines developed in the design and manufacturing process, due to the weak domestic industrial base, the quality control ability of key components is very poor.
In addition, the technical level of the core components such as power plant, sensing equipment and navigation control system of the Type 091 nuclear submarine is also very limited, and there is an obvious gap with the same type of submarine in the world.
Among them, the power plant of the Type 091 nuclear submarine adopts early pressurized water reactor technology, which is not high in power and economy, and has poor operational stability.
The propulsion system also did not use completely new technology, and the noise generated by the shafting structure was very high.
It is also due to the strong noise generated by its underwater navigation, which also leads to the fact that as long as the Type 091 nuclear submarine enters the Pacific Ocean to carry out a mission, it will definitely be discovered and tracked by Japan, and it will not be able to play the role of a nuclear submarine at all.
In addition to the fact that the anti-submarine forces of Japan can easily detect their location and conduct long-term follow-up surveillance, the same is true for the United States.
In 1994, a Type 091 nuclear submarine accidentally encountered the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier battle group while performing a maritime readiness patrol mission, and the two sides confronted each other in a certain area of the western Pacific.
Due to the limited technical level of the Type 091 nuclear submarine, it is difficult to take effective measures to avoid being discovered by the US military.
In the ensuing naval confrontation, it was also difficult for the Type 091 nuclear submarine to get rid of the encirclement and interception of the US military, and could only choose to hide underwater for more than 60 hours before finally breaking away from the encirclement of the US military.
This maritime confrontation further exposed that there was still a big gap between the overall technical level of China's nuclear submarines at that time and the advanced international standards, and such maritime confrontations have often happened for decades.
Faced with the problem of insufficient performance of the Type 091 nuclear submarine, the mainland immediately organized forces to improve the design of the Type 091.
At the same time, the mainland also imported 12 Kilo-class nuclear submarines from Russia to make up for the lack of concealment capabilities of the Type 091.
By comparing the Kilo class, Continental's engineers further realized the shortcomings of the domestic Type 091 in terms of design and performance.
In the 90s, although the mainland developed the Type 039 conventionally powered submarine, the diesel engine used in the Type 039 was noisy and difficult to improve the concealment performance, which once again highlighted the need for the mainland to break through the propulsion system technology.
Therefore, the mainland has begun to tackle key problems in core technologies.
Two key technologies that span the ages (2000-2010)
In the 21st century, two major breakthroughs have been made in the mainland's nuclear submarine project, which has laid a solid foundation for the rapid development of the nuclear submarine industry in the future.
Among them, the first breakthrough is the successful development of a shaftless pump propulsion system, according to Academician Ma Weiming, this technology of the mainland is at least 10 years ahead of the United States.
The shaftless pump propulsion system is another important advance in nuclear submarine propulsion technology after the axial flow propulsion system.
Compared with the traditional axial flow system, the shaftless pump system uses a turbine to directly drive the blades to generate axial flow, which realizes the separation of power transmission and torque transmission, and greatly reduces the overall noise of the system.
This has laid a technical foundation for improving the concealment performance of nuclear submarines, and the development of shaftless pump systems is a major topic in the mainland's nuclear submarine project.
Because this technology involves interdisciplinary knowledge such as dynamics, fluid mechanics, and materials science, it faces many difficulties in theoretical research and experimental verification.
The R&D team continuously conducts theoretical calculations, model tests and field tests to optimize the system structure and performance.
In the design of the propulsion system, the research and development team adopted a supercritical rotor impeller structure, and used a turbine to directly drive the impeller to generate axial flow, so as to realize the separation of power and torque.
At the same time, a special acoustic isolation structure is adopted to effectively reduce the acoustic vibration of the impeller speed.
In addition, new materials and welding techniques are used to improve the reliability of the system as a whole.
From 2000 to 2005, the R&D team successively carried out a number of pool tests and sea trials of different scales to verify and optimize the performance indicators of the system.
All performance indicators meet or exceed the design values, which marks the success of the development of the shaftless pump system.
In the 21 st century, another major breakthrough in the mainland's nuclear submarine project was the formal establishment of the Type 093 nuclear submarine at the end of the 90s of the 20 th century.
The Type 093 nuclear submarine was a second-generation nuclear-powered attack submarine independently designed and developed by the mainland, and it was also a new milestone in the technical level of the mainland's nuclear submarine at that time.
It has adopted a number of core technologies original to the mainland, including a new generation of miniaturized nuclear reactors and a self-developed shaftless pump propulsion system.
The development of the Type 093 nuclear submarine lasted nearly 10 years, and the process was extremely tortuous.
First of all, in terms of hull design, the development team adopted a better streamlined shape according to the requirements of concealment performance, and optimized it with new materials and acoustic isolation technology.
In terms of nuclear reactors, the R&D team has successfully developed a miniaturized nuclear reactor with a power of 10 megawatts.
Compared with the Type 091, the reactor is only half the volume of the Type 091, but the power is nearly twice as high, which greatly improves the endurance of the Type 093.
In terms of propulsion system, the R&D team successfully developed and applied the shaftless pump propulsion system independently developed by Continental, which was one of the most advanced submarine propulsion systems in the world at that time.
In addition, for the first time, the Type 093 is equipped with a new generation of torpedo weapons and fire control systems on the continental nuclear submarine, which gives the Type 093 a powerful underwater attack capability.
After a long and arduous development, the Type 093 nuclear submarine was officially commissioned in 2010.
The Rise of the "Silent Killer" (2010-present)
After 2010, with the commissioning of the Type 093 nuclear submarine, the mainland's nuclear submarine industry has entered a period of rapid development.
The commissioning of the Type 093 nuclear submarine marks that the continental nuclear submarine has truly grown into a modern submarine fleet.
At the same time, the mainland has also made a series of new breakthroughs in the core technology fields related to nuclear submarines.
One of the most important is the Type 093B nuclear submarine, which debuted in 2012.
Compared with the Type 093, the Type 093B has achieved major upgrades in many aspects such as propulsion system, acoustic isolation, and weapon control.
And its appearance also means that the mainland navy will have the ability to frequently enter and exit the second island chain in the future, and it will not be discovered as easily as the Type 091.
At the same time, the mainland's scientific and technological research and development in the field of nuclear submarines has also ushered in a period of rapid development.
Especially in the field of new propulsion technologies such as shaftless magnetohydrodynamic propulsion, mainland researchers have invested a lot of energy in research.
The shaftless magnetohydrodynamic propulsion system uses magnetic levitation technology instead of mechanical transmission, which can effectively reduce the noise of the propulsion system and bring a revolutionary impact on the improvement of the concealment performance of nuclear submarines.
In addition, Continental is also conducting cutting-edge technology research in various directions, such as ultra-small nuclear reactors and sonar isolation materials.
The continuous emergence of a number of major scientific and technological achievements has laid a technical foundation for the mainland's nuclear submarine project to continuously enhance its national defense strength and to compete for sea supremacy.
At the same time, with the continuous maturity of nuclear submarine-related technology, the mainland's nuclear submarine team has also grown rapidly.
According to public information, in the five years after 2017, the mainland will launch one nuclear submarine every year, and by 2020, the number of Type 093 nuclear submarines on the mainland has reached five.
In addition, the more advanced Type 096 nuclear submarine is also in the development stage.
The Type 096 nuclear submarine will adopt more advanced propulsion systems and equipment, and its combat radius and submersion time will exceed that of the Type 093, putting unprecedented pressure on the adversary.
With the launch of the Type 096, the size of China's nuclear submarine fleet is expected to double in the next 5-10 years, which will make the Chinese Navy the second largest nuclear submarine navy in the world, second only to the United States.
In addition to the increase in numbers, the actual combat capabilities of China's nuclear submarines are also constantly improving.
After 2010, the Chinese Navy began to organize nuclear submarines to conduct actual combat Xi and far-sea training.
These trainings not only tested the combat capability of the nuclear submarine itself, but also tempered the joint combat capability of the nuclear submarine with carrier-based aircraft and surface ships.
Some analysts have pointed out that, judging from the current training situation, China's nuclear submarines have the ability to operate covertly and carry out attacks in the far sea area.
This further expands its strategic sphere of influence and puts more pressure on its opponents.
China's nuclear submarines have truly grown from a submarine force with strong combat effectiveness from talking about it on paper.
China's nuclear submarines have become the new main force in the Asia-Pacific region
Through nearly 10 years of rapid development, China's nuclear submarines have grown into a truly powerful maritime force.
It has not only achieved considerable growth in terms of quantity and technology, but has also made a qualitative leap in its actual combat capability and strategic influence.
China's nuclear submarines have grown from a mere defensive weapon to a strategic weapon capable of movement and strike in the far sea.
It has brought unprecedented challenges to the United States' maritime hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region, and the ever-increasing nuclear submarine fleet has also laid a solid foundation for the Chinese Navy to build its core maritime forces.
In the face of the growing momentum and influence of China's nuclear submarines, the United States is feeling unprecedented pressure.
The United States has begun to regard China's nuclear submarines as its number one imaginary enemy and as the greatest threat to maritime security, which fully reflects the increasingly mature strategic position of China's nuclear submarines.
Through just a few decades of development, China's nuclear submarines have become the new main maritime power in the Asia-Pacific region, and together with US submarines, they will become the two potential determinants of this important geopolitical region in the 21st century.
China's nuclear submarines are playing a central role with their strength.
epilogue
After more than 30 years of continuous exploration, China's nuclear submarine industry has developed from the initial era of "beating gongs and drums" to a "silent killer" with strong concealment capabilities.
In various core technical fields of nuclear submarines, such as nuclear power, propulsion systems, and acoustic isolation technology, China has achieved synchronization with or advanced with the world's advanced level.
In particular, in terms of propulsion system and acoustic isolation technology, some original technologies adopted by Continental, such as shaftless pump propulsion and sonar isolation materials, have reached or exceeded the world's advanced level.
This has brought unprecedented challenges to the US Navy, and in terms of concealment capabilities, China's nuclear submarines have been able to stand shoulder to shoulder with US nuclear submarines.
More than 30 years of continuous exploration have allowed China's nuclear submarines to develop from a small country's water testing project to a truly powerful submarine team.
This also indicates that the mainland has grown into a powerful country in this important field.
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