Pentagon Confirms China’s New Nuclear Sub Sank in Shipyards

A satellite image appears to show cranes at the Wuchang shipyard in Wuhan Shi, China, on June 15, 2024. Planet Labs Inc./Handout via Reuters

China’s newest nuclear-powered submarine sank in a shipyard near Wuhan earlier this year, according to the Pentagon, representing a setback in one of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) priority goals.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the pierside sinking, which the Pentagon confirmed. The submarine is estimated to have sunk between May and June.

Wuhan is home to two state-backed research institutes and is where China’s submarine research and development takes place.

Satellite images of the new submarine were first shared online by defense analyst and Center for a New American Security senior adjunct fellow Tom Shugart.

Ziding Zhou, an independent analyst following the CCP’s military developments, told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times that the images showed the new model was just a few meters longer than China’s diesel-fueled Type 039A submarine.

Zhou said it looked like the CCP was experimenting with small-scale nuclear technology.

Zhou said the submarine did not look like a large-scale attack model but one more suitable for sea-to-sea combat in the Taiwan Strait.

Chinese authorities have not disclosed the incident.

Zhou said the revelation that U.S. defense officials were able to glean that it was a nuclear submarine also sent a major signal to the CCP that it hasn’t kept its weaponry advancements under wraps as well as it might have thought.

In recent years, the CCP has aggressively expanded its nuclear arsenal and military vessels, following the regime leader Xi Jinping’s call for war readiness. China has the largest navy in the world, with more than 370 ships, and is developing a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines.

The expansion has led the U.S. Navy to acknowledge “the need for a larger, more lethal force” if it plans to counter the Chinese navy. Earlier this month, the U.S. Navy released a new strategic document to develop “readiness for the possibility of war with the People’s Republic of China by 2027.”

Loss of Sub ‘Raises Deeper Questions’

A senior U.S. defense official told Reuters it was unclear what caused the submarine to sink.

“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defense industry—which has long been plagued by corruption,” the official said, using an acronym for the People’s Liberation Army.

“It’s not surprising that the PLA Navy would try to conceal” the sinking, the official said.

A Pentagon spokesperson said it was also unclear whether the submarine had been carrying nuclear fuel at the time.

A series of satellite images from Planet Labs from June appear to show cranes at the Wuchang shipyard, where the submarine would have been docked.

As of 2022, China had six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines, and 48 diesel-powered attack submarines, according to a Pentagon report on the Chinese military. That submarine force is expected to grow to 65 by 2025 and 80 by 2035, the U.S. Defense Department has said.

China Test-Fired Nuclear-Capable Missile

This week, the CCP also test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the Pacific Ocean, its first such test since 1980.

ICBMs are nuclear-armed missiles capable of striking almost any target in the world. Chinese authorities said they had given relevant neighbors advanced notice. Japan said it received no such notice.

The ICBM, a DF-41 capable of traveling an estimated 9,300 miles, landed near the French Polynesian islands. Experts told The Epoch Times this was meant to send a message both domestically—perhaps to distract from criticism of the regime’s handling of the economy—and globally.

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. James Fanell, former director of intelligence of the U.S. Pacific fleet, said the CCP’s actions run counter to official statements and diplomatic talks.

“This activity comes just days after the Commander of the PLA’s Southern Theater Command, General Wu Yanan, attended the Indo-Pacific Command’s Chiefs of Defense conference in Honolulu—a meeting that was said to help cool tensions between Beijing and Washington. This promise was made against the backdrop of [China’s] cutting-off military-to-military (mil-to-mil) talks with the U.S.,” Fanell said.