A Pentagon assessment says China is now maintaining at least one nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine at sea, putting pressure on the U.S.S. and its partners to resist Beijing’s increasing military.
China’s military reported “near-continuous” patrols from Hainan Island into the South China Sea by its six Jin-class ballistic missile submarines. In addition, analysts think a new, longer-range ballistic missile can target tU.S continental U.S.
Four regional military attaches acquainted with naval operations and five other security analysts said the note in the 174-page study showed important advancements in Chinese capabilities.
The AUKUS contract will provide Australia with its first nuclear-powered submarines in 20 years. However, China’s’s ballistU.S. missile patrols at sea tax U.S. and allied resources as they expand Cold War-style deployments.
“We’re going to want to have our SSNs attempting to track them… so the extra demands on our assets are evident,” said Christopher Twomey, a security scholar at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in U.S.fornia, speaking privately. U.S. nuclear strike subs are called SSNs. But the issue is that the information—the near-constant patrols—has changed so swiftly that we don’t know what else has changed.
Logistics, leadership, and weaponry will improve with the new patrols. However, military attaches, veteran submariners, and security analysts believe they also show China operating U.S.s ballistic missile submarines like the U.S., Russia, Britain, and France have for decades.
Their “deterrence patrols” can threaten a nuclear response even without land-based missiles and systems. It deters a first attack under the nuclear policy.
General Anthony Cotton, chief of the U.S. Strategic Command, told a congressional committee in March that Chinese subs now had the JL-3 third-generation missile.
The Pentagon assessment says the JL-3 can reach the mainland US from Chinese coastal waters for the first time with an estimated range of over 10,000 kilometres (6,214 miles) and several warheads.
The JL-3 was planned to be deployed once China launched its Type-096 submarines.
The Chinese defense ministry declined to comment on the Pentagon report and submarine deployments. The Pentagon did not comment on its past evaluations or if Chinese deployments constituted an operational issue.
The Pacific Fleet says the Navy has around two dozen nuclear-powered assault submarines in Guam and Hawaii. From 2027, AUKUS will deploy U.S. and British nuclear-powered subs from Western Australia.
Surface ships and P-8 Poseidon observation planes support such submarines in pursuing ballistic missile submarines. Seabed sensors in important maritime channels help the U.S. identify submarines.
Timothy Wright, a defense expert at London’s International Centre for Strategic Studies, said U.S. forces could certainly handle the situation today but will need additional assets in 10 to 15 years after the stealthier Type-096 patrols start.
He noted that U.S. strategists must now deal with two “nuclear peer adversaries”—Russia and China—due to China’s fast nuclear buildup.
He claimed it would strain U.S. defenses, put more targets at risk, and need more conventional and nuclear weapons.
