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| Type 094 Jin class SSBN (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki) |
By Zachary Keck
U.S. intelligence suggests that China’s Navy will begin sea trials of its new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) next year, according to a report this week by Bill Gertz, which appeared in the Washington Free Beacon, a right-leaning U.S. publication.
“We are anticipating that combat patrols of submarines carrying the new JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile will begin next year,” Gertz quotes an unnamed U.S. Defense Official as saying.
According to Missile Threat, a website jointly run by the George C. Marshall and Claremont Institutes, the JL-2 is a three-stage solid propellant SLBM designed off of the mobile land-based DF-31 ballistic missile. It has a “minimum range of 2,000 km, a maximum range greater than 7,200 km, and carries a payload of 1,050 to 2,800 kg.” Many others site its range as 8,000 km.
It can also be equipped with a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV), which allows it to carry between 2-8 warheads on a single missile.
The JL-2 will be deployed on China’s Type-094 (Jin-Class) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN). Currently, China fields three Type-094 SSBNs but is in the process of acquiring two more, before turning to its next generation SSBN, the U.S. Department of Defense said in its annual assessment (PDF) of China’s military capabilities.
Each Jin-Class SSBN has 12 missile launch tubes.
Read the full story at The Diplomat