The Sea of Japan has long been the leader of the anti-submarine brigade hand-picked by the United States, and has established a strong anti-submarine system with the long-term help of the United States. In the famous "Eighty-Eight Fleet", most of the ships are developed for anti-submarine, in addition, the Aviation Anti-submarine Technology of the Japanese Sea is also world-class, and the Japan Sea of Japan's anti-submarine combat capability can be described as unique.
During the Cold War, the US military deployed the "Sosas" submarine fixed sonar interception network in important waters around the world, which is a kind of passive sonar fixed on the seabed to form an acoustic array, once the "Sosas" detects a suspicious target underwater, the US military stationed in Japan will immediately provide the approximate orientation of the suspicious target to the Japanese Sea and the Seventh Fleet, and then send anti-submarine patrol aircraft and surface ships to locate the submarine more accurately.
Relying on this powerful anti-submarine system, the United States and Japan basically achieved comprehensive surveillance and encirclement of Soviet nuclear submarines during the Cold War, and after the Cold War, the United States and Japan did not relax their anti-submarine efforts, but turned the anti-submarine muzzle at China.
As the earliest nuclear submarine in China, the Type 091 (Han-class) attack nuclear submarine and the Type 092 (Xia-class) strategic nuclear submarine are constrained by many factors, resulting in their performance lagging far behind the world's advanced level at the beginning of their birth.
In 1966, the research and development of China's first type of strategic nuclear submarine Type 092 was officially launched in Zonghai Lake, Yunnan, and the first batch of experts involved in research and development was only 29 people, and the information in their hands was only two photos and some children's submarine toys.
In the research and development process of the Type 091 nuclear submarine, China even first accumulated experience in the process of continuous improvement of the wooden shell by hand, and finally turned decaying wood into an iron wall. However, due to technical bottlenecks, lack of data, equipment limitations and other unfavorable factors, many of China's military workers have paid a lot of effort to forge the Han and Xia nuclear submarines have not shown excellent performance.
Due to many problems, high prices and backward technology, these two types of nuclear submarines were not mass-produced, and it was not until 1987 that China's nuclear submarines officially formed a certain combat effectiveness.
In general, the technical level of Type 091 and Type 092 nuclear submarines is roughly equivalent to the improved type of the first generation of Nuclear Submarines of the Soviet Union, and at that time, such submarines were already on the verge of being eliminated, and The Type 092 nuclear submarines would even be discovered by American sonar even 200 kilometers away.
The Type 091 attack nuclear submarine was officially commissioned in 1974, and a total of five were built: 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, code named Long March 1 to Long March 5, in more than 40 years of military career, Type 091 nuclear submarine, for China to train a large number of nuclear submarine experts, nuclear submarine officers, accumulated a large number of relevant nuclear submarine construction, use experience.
But his backward performance is called by the United States and Japan: beating the gong and beating the drum to go out, basically from the beginning of the 091 type to go to sea, it has been under the close surveillance of the US and Japanese anti-submarine forces, so the 091 type nuclear submarine has also been tracked, interfered with and confronted by the US side and the Japanese side many times when it goes out to sea and patrol.
The Type 091's first confrontation with the U.S.-Japan Navy was in October 1994, when the USS Kitty Hawk battle group sailed into the Yellow Sea to pressure China, and the Chinese Navy sent No. 403 nuclear submarines for tracking missions. In fact, not long after the 403 went to sea, the US military was already familiar with its whereabouts.
When sailing into the high seas 420 nautical miles from the Shandong Peninsula, the US destroyers and anti-submarine patrol aircraft launched a tight pursuit of the 403, dropped a large number of sonar buoys, and used active sonar to continuously detect the precise position of the submarine, during which the US military carried out 7 triangulation precision attacks.
Due to the serious interference of the communication system, the 403rd could not even send an effective signal for help, and under the layers of blockade of the US military's surface, underwater and air forces, the 403rd could not withdraw, and could only persist underwater and not float, and persisted underwater for 60 hours.
In desperation, the Chinese side sent the J-8 to lock in the US aircraft carrier formation, and the US side was ordered to return to its home port in order to avoid a maritime conflict with the Chinese side.
In 2005, the Sea of Japan officially announced that a Chinese "Han" class nuclear submarine entered Japanese territorial waters on February 10, patrolled the edge of Tara Island for about 24 hours, and gave the complete trajectory of the nuclear submarine. Subsequently, the nuclear submarine had to withdraw to the base of the North Sea Fleet, and the Japanese side made public various data and markers on the submarine's diving depth, route, speed, etc., which undoubtedly embarrassed China.
The Japanese side believes that the backward Type 091 nuclear submarine dared to enter Japanese territorial waters under the eyes of the World's leading anti-submarine capability, the Sea of Japan, and tried to perform tasks such as reconnaissance and seabed terrain mapping.
However, on the evening of January 12, 2018, the Japanese Ministry of Defense released the news that the Destroyers "Dayo" and "Dabo" of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force found a Chinese Navy submarine sailing on the northwest waters of the Diaoyu Islands that afternoon, and the boat was still flying a prominent Chinese flag on the command tower.
According to the Ministry of Defense, it was the submarine that dives into the contiguous zone of Chiwei Island, an affiliated island of the Diaoyu Islands , on the 11th ( i.e. 12 nautical miles to 24 nautical miles from the baseline of the territorial sea . For a time, the offensive and defensive trends were different, And Japan's anti-submarine capability was immediately questioned and dissatisfied by the United States, and even the international community also reported that Japan's anti-submarine capability had declined.
In just over two decades, the shield of the Japanese sea has been dismantled by the Nuclear Submarines of the Chinese Navy, all of which stems from the leap-forward upgrading of China's new generation of attack nuclear submarines and strategic nuclear submarines.
The Type 093 nuclear submarine is a new generation of attack nuclear submarines in China that began to be developed in the 1990s, and the first ship entered service in 2006. With the all-round rise of China's industrial base, scientific research capabilities, economic strength, etc., 093 finally sheathed the sword after more than ten years of polishing.
Compared with the "Han" class attack nuclear submarine, the length of the Type 093 nuclear submarine is significantly longer than that of the Type 091, and the smoothness of the processing technology and shell is much better than that of the 091 nuclear-powered submarine.
In the overall layout, the mature and reliable shell rudder, cone tail, single-shaft single oar, and tail cross rudder of the 091 are continued, but the enclosure adopts a small Western cross-sectional area, and the slender and long enclosure makes the whole appear slim, and the overall layout style is basically the same as that of the "Los Angeles" level in the United States.
At the same time, the engine power of the Type 093 is 90% higher than that of the Type 091, reaching 38,000 horsepower, and it is quite safe, stable and quiet, but there are still some gaps compared to the "Los Angeles" class SG6 natural circulation reactor.
After 2003, China has improved the noise reduction of the 093 type, using floating raft technology and large side oblique propeller to reduce the noise of the submarine, and add a layer of anechoic tiles and the overall flexible skin material, which greatly reduces the mechanical noise and significantly improves the concealment.
093 type nuclear submarine has achieved great success, so the type 091 nuclear submarine has gradually introduced the historical stage, until today only one type 091 nuclear submarine is still in service, some military fans joked that the 091 type decommissioning is more significant than the service, the decommissioning of the 091 type marks that China's attack nuclear submarine has entered the world-class level.
In 2014, the official entry into service of the Type 093B attack nuclear submarine achieved a major transformation of the Chinese Navy from coast to sea, sea to sea, and sea to land, although the 093B is only a transitional model for the Chinese Navy, but this submarine has an unprecedented and amazing strike capability.
Subsequently, the Chinese Navy's nuclear submarines entered and exited the first and second island chains more frequently, entering the waters of Guam and even Hawaii, truly realizing the absolute deterrent force that submarine forces should have. In addition to deterring the U.S. military and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region, another important task of attacking nuclear submarines is to escort the aircraft carrier formation, so building a strong nuclear submarine force is an important part of building a strong aircraft carrier formation.
In recent years, the Aircraft Carrier Formation of the Chinese Navy has carried out ocean-going training many times, while the ocean-going navigation and training of the Navy's nuclear submarines have gradually become routine, and breaking through the first and second island chains has become a common thing for Chinese nuclear submarines.
Although the United States and Japan are still constantly strengthening the anti-potential deployment in the Asia-Pacific region in an attempt to maintain absolute surveillance of China's nuclear submarines, there is no doubt that it is already more difficult for the United States and Japan to find Chinese nuclear submarines today, and it will only become more and more difficult in the future.
From the first battle between the Type 093 attack nuclear submarine and the Sea of Japan, we can glimpse the great progress of the Type 093's actual combat capability. In January 2018, the US military reconnaissance satellite found that a Type 093 attack nuclear submarine had disappeared from the base in Qingdao, and then the US military immediately joined forces with the Japanese army to conduct an anti-submarine search of this nuclear submarine, but failed to find the trace of this submarine.
It was not until January 10, 2018, that the fixed underwater monitoring system deployed by the US military finally found a suspected underwater target in the northeast waters of the Miyako Strait, and after such a long time, it was barely able to find the clues of Chinese nuclear submarines entering the waters near Japan, which was an unprecedented scandal for the "anti-submarine brigade leader".
The Japanese authorities immediately dispatched two frigates of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and P-3C patrol aircraft of the Naha 5th Air Group to search. However, the Sea of Japan, which dispatched such a huge amount of anti-potential, has not completed target locking and identification since the afternoon of the 10th to the morning of the 11th, and even cannot be tracked continuously.
The Miyako Strait is precisely where the Japanese army's anti-potential is most concentrated, but the Sea of Japan has been unable to catch China's Type 093 nuclear submarine for two days in this area, which has broken the myth of Japan's "anti-submarine brigade leader" and made the Sea of Japan lose face.
Finally, on the afternoon of January 12, the Type 093 nuclear submarine took the initiative to emerge from the water, at which time the US military found a submarine sailing on the surface of the northwest sea of the Diaoyu Islands 300 kilometers away, and then summoned the P-3C patrol aircraft to track it, and only then did the United States and Japan finally find the Type 093 submarine that had successfully completed the mission and was returning home to land.
Since the Chinese guided-missile frigate "Yiyang" entered the waters near the Diaoyu Islands to cruise on the 11th, the Japanese side learned of the interception of the DD-111 "Dabo" destroyer and the DE-231 "Dayian" frigate from the Sixth Frigate, and the Japanese side used this as an excuse to declare that the Japanese side had accurately positioned the submarine as early as when the Chinese nuclear submarine entered the Miyako Strait and launched a continuous tracking.
From the 10th to the 12th, the submarine's track was tracked by the sea, which eventually forced it to float in the waters around the Diaoyu Islands, and the reason why China's nuclear submarines wanted to float was to "smartly" save China's face and ask the Japanese side to track it. I don't know what really happened in the home of the "anti-submarine captain", so I made such a pale and powerless sophistry to save my face.
According to international practice and the principle of discovery and destruction, once the submarine is found underwater, it is reasonable to require the submarine to float, if the Japanese side can really continue to track the Chinese nuclear submarine for up to 48 hours, it can be completely through the encirclement and interception of the anti-submarine aircraft, and forcibly require the Chinese nuclear submarine to float.
For our nuclear submarines, the use of complex meteorological and sea conditions such as warm currents, cold currents, ocean winds, etc., can effectively get rid of the search and tracking of anti-submarine forces, even in the Sino-US confrontation in 1994, China's nuclear submarines were still not forced to float.
On the other hand, the gap between China and Japan in the vicinity of the Diaoyu Dao is huge, and China has achieved normal cruising in the waters near the Diaoyu Dao as early as 2013, with a large number of coast guard ships and warships of the Chinese Navy, and fighter jets such as the Su 30MK2 and J-10C of the shore-based aviation forces can reach the waters of the Diaoyu Dao in less than half an hour.
Such a power gap also vainly attempts to continue to track Down China's nuclear submarines and force nuclear submarines to float, and I am afraid that if China's nuclear submarines have just been positioned, they will be forced to evacuate by the Chinese Air Force. The floating waters of the Type 093 nuclear submarine are a shallow area with dense commercial routes, and in order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and affect the normal operation of international shipping, the floating was finally chosen.
No matter what sophistry the Japanese side tries to justify itself, what cannot be explained is that the Type 093 nuclear submarine has been operating near the Miyako Strait for about 48 hours, and the Japanese side has deployed a strict underwater array sonar and blocking net in this area, and at the same time dispatched P3C to continuously drop sonar buoys, which took two days and could not force the 093 to float, if the Japanese side really has the ability to track the 093 nuclear submarine.
So on the morning of the 10th or 11th, the 093 nuclear submarine should have been forced to float, so why wait until the 12th 093 nuclear submarine to actively float? In fact, the anti-submarine capability of American equipment itself is questionable, and in the process of helping other countries search for missing submarines many times, there are not a few precedents for the United States to call a large number of anti-submarine forces to finally return to no avail.
In general, the performance of the Type 093B nuclear submarine has reached the standard of the western three generations of attack nuclear submarines, and its own performance can be comparable to that of the US military's "Los Angeles" class nuclear submarines, but it still lags behind the "Seawolf" and "Virginia", with the unique Eagle Strike 18 anti-ship missile, and even has a greater deterrent than the "Los Angeles" class.
From the 091 type beating the gong and drum to the 093B "quietly entering the village", China's nuclear submarine force has made leaps and bounds in more than twenty years, especially in noise reduction, and has the ability to challenge the US anti-submarine system, but the gap between the 093 and the "Virginia" class still exists objectively, and it also needs the unremitting efforts of this generation of Chinese military workers to finally complete the anti-overtaking.
After the 093 bravely broke into the Miyako Strait, Haizi became the "Minister of Shock" from the "Anti-Submarine Brigade Leader", often claiming that Chinese nuclear submarines had entered the waters around Japan without any reliable evidence, and the anti-submarine forces had poured out.
From September 10 to 12 this year, a submarine that "may have been a Chinese submarine" was discovered near Kagoshima Prefecture, and the Reason why the Japanese side judged that the submarine was a Chinese submarine was that there was a Chinese destroyer sailing near the submarine.
Coincidentally, in June 2020, the Sea of Japan discovered that a foreign submarine was traveling westward near Kagoshima Prefecture, and the submarine was inexplicably labeled a "Chinese submarine."
Of course, regardless of whether the Japanese side buckles its hat or not, whether the submarine found is a Chinese submarine or not, in the words of the spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, "This is mainly because the mentality has not been adjusted, and the heart disease has not been cured." Maybe it's because in the past, Chinese warships crossed the Miyako Strait too few times, so in the future we will have more than a few times, and the Japanese side will get used to it. ”
The Type 093 nuclear submarine has been in service for more than ten years, during which China's rapid economic development and international status have been continuously improved, and more overseas interests and more responsibilities of major powers are requiring us to build a more powerful navy and have more powerful nuclear submarines.
With the news circulating on the Internet that the Type 095 nuclear submarine has entered service, and the official media has intentionally or unintentionally revealed the news that the new nuclear submarine is about to enter service, we have reason to believe that in the near future we will have more powerful attack nuclear submarines than the "Virginia" class.
It uses shaftless pump push technology, with more advanced noise reduction technology and nuclear reactor technology, equipped with submarine-launched wavebody hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missiles and supersonic surface-to-ship cruise missiles, with unprecedented conventional deterrence capabilities, the ability to lurk under the eyes of any opponent and launch an unstoppable fatal blow against them.
Only such an attack nuclear submarine can escort China's aircraft carrier and let China's influence go to the world, and only such a nuclear submarine can replace the strategic deterrent status of the 094 strategic nuclear submarine to a certain extent and avoid unnecessary nuclear war. The successor of the 094 strategic nuclear submarine, the 096-class strategic nuclear submarine, can only be said to know nothing, only that China built the world's largest coiling machine in the past few years.