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| Russian Kilo (model 636) Submarine |
February 12, 2013: Over the last five years Chinese submarines have been going to sea a lot more, at least the diesel-electric boats have been. This is worrying to other nations in the region, and the U.S. Navy, because it means China is training its submarine crews for war. Previously the Chinese kept their fleet in port most of the time. This was cheaper although in wartime it meant that Chinese warships would not last long in combat against a better trained fleet (like the Americans, or Japanese or South Koreans or Taiwanese.) Now the Chinese are building better quality subs, and feel they may have a fighting chance, if they have better prepared crews as well.
For China, one downside of all this training is that the U.S. Navy has more opportunity to practice hunting Chinese subs. This is particularly true for American subs, which are well equipped with passive (listen only) sonar and are even more effective if they have a lot of sound samples for enemy subs operating underwater or on the surface. The U.S. has discovered that Chinese diesel-electric boats are rapidly getting quieter, apparently because the Chinese have learned more about advanced techniques for “silencing” subs. Still, most of the 60 Chinese subs in service are pretty noisy and easy to find.
Read the full story at Strategy Page