New experimental Chinese submarine

kcran567

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Estimated at 50m long by 5m, low profile with no top mast.

(Image from Jane's)
 

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TomcatViP said:
unmanned?

Probably. Counterpart to the US Navy's Large Scale Vehicles (LSVs) Kokanee and Cutthroat.
 
I wonder if its a covert ops sub?
Judging by the images on Covert Shore's excellent site, with a smaller lower rudder its possible its meant to sit on the bottom with diver locks, USV hangars etc. on the topside? The low sail could also be an attempt to lower the silhouette/RCS when on the surface. There doesn't seem to be any bow tubes for torpedo armament and its unlikely to be a high-speed prototype.
 
New video, confirms tiny sail is 'final'. One possibility is that it's all-electric, thus minimizing snort etc?

http://www.hisutton.com/China_Sailless_Submarine.html
 

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Would that be short range return to parent vessel, fuels cell or generating engine?
 
Ask a stupid question time. Would it be a Ballistic Missile Submarine or an Attack Submarine? :-\
 
FighterJock said:
Ask a stupid question time. Would it be a Ballistic Missile Submarine or an Attack Submarine? :-\

Scale makes it far too small to be a Boomer, and no sign no large topside hatches anyway.

I stand by my suggestion that it's a large-scale test vessel, not on operational warship design.
 
Yes I think an experimental submarine is most likely.

It's screw and control surfaces suggest typical conventional submarine performance envelope, maybe a bit quicker because of the sleek bow and tiny 'bump' sail. But would expect a pumpjet if speed really was the objective, unless China cannot build those yet(?). Also note that the lower rudder appears short enough to allow it to bottom-out on the sea floor, hmmm...

<edit: Hood already noted the lower rudder, good stuff! yes. However cannot see other obvious hints of special forces mission except size and seemingly modest or non-existent sonar/torpedoes which point to that type of mission. >

Possibly it is an export model, that much has been speculated by Chinese observers, but seems a bold design. Pakistan might be the customers if export (cannot think of any other likely country), but I don't think it is.
 
Is there a hatch for people?

It's a bit big for a USV, though if you wanted a very long range this is the sort of size that might deliver that.
 
lastdingo said:
The minimised sail makes sense considering the technological advances regarding periscopes and such.
It's something that has certainly made the rounds in American and Russian design studies, but thus far has never gone to anything like this scale. Part of the reason has been that the utility offered by the sail is usually seen as worth the hydrodynamic "cost," it's interesting to me that the PLAN decision-makers may have come down on the other side. Or at least are willing to put the resources into giving it a go with this test vehicle.
 
A UUV which is designed to bottom out and sit on the sea floor for prolonged periods of time prior to activating?

Or an iterative test vehicle which is being used to test things other than breakthrough propulsion technologies (e.g. the next vehicle will test that annular electric drive, or it is being tested somewhere else)?
 
a new c35x3,5m submarine was supposed to have been seen 800km upriver in 2014, presumeably for trials Kokanee/Cutthroat-style. Have anybody seen a picture or have an idea wheather it was similar to this one?
 
No tube cut-outs in the front, so definitely a vessel for "listening/tracking". What kind of communication suite does it have then? Is this designed to operate in certain areas of the SCS that are networked in?
 
Curious. It doesn't seem to have any equipment for swimmer delivery, though its a fuzzy picture. It also doesn't seem to have any weapons tubes. And if it is a sub scale model, it would be a truly large submarine with an extremely small sail. About all I could say about it is it definitely is experimental, but exactly what is being experimented other than the obvious reduction of the sail I can't fathom.
 
A sonar testbed possibly? If you look at the configuration of the bowplanes it would be optimal for keeping the actuators away from the bow array; for that matter has China built a boat previously that was configured with retractable bowplanes?
 

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