Chinese build secret nuclear submarine base





China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed.





Satellite imagery, passed to The Daily Telegraph, shows that a substantial harbour has been built which could house a score of nuclear ballistic missile submarines and a host of aircraft carriers.

• Satellite image of the harbour: click to enlarge

In what will be a significant challenge to US Navy dominance and to countries ringing the South China Sea, one photograph shows China’s latest 094 nuclear submarine at the base just a few hundred miles from its neighbours.
Other images show numerous warships moored to long jettys and a network of underground tunnels at the Sanya base on the southern tip of Hainan island.
Of even greater concern to the Pentagon are massive tunnel entrances, estimated to be 60ft high, built into hillsides around the base. Sources fear they could lead to caverns capable of hiding up to 20 nuclear submarines from spy satellites.
The US Department of Defence has estimated that China will have five 094 nuclear submarines operational by 2010 with each capable of carrying 12 JL-2 nuclear missiles.
The images were obtained by Janes Intelligence Review after the periodical was given access to imagery from the commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe.
Analysts for the respected military magazine suggest that the base could be used for "expeditionary as well as defensive operations" and would allow the submarines to "break out to launch locations closer to the US".
It would now be "difficult to ignore" that China was building a major naval base where it could house its nuclear forces and increase it "strategic capability considerably further afield".
The development so close to the sea lanes vital to Asian economies "can only cause concern far beyond these straits".
Military analysts believe that China’s substantial build up of its forces is gaining pace put has remained hidden from the world in the build-up to the Olympics.
China has diverted much of its resources from the huge Peoples Liberation Army to the navy, air force and missile development.
An old Russian aircraft carrier, bought by Beijing for "leisure activities" has been picked over by naval architects who hope to "reverse engineer" the ship.
Within the next five to 10 years the Peoples Liberation Navy is expected to build up to six carriers which will also coincide with the Royal Navy’s construction of two major carriers.
The location of the base off Hainan will also give the submarines access to very deep water exceeding 5,000 metres within a few miles, making them even harder to detect.
Britain’s Trident submarines have to remain on the surface when they leave Faslane in north east Scotland and cannot dive to depth until outside the Irish Sea.
While it has been known that China might be developing an underground base at Sanya, the pictures provide the first proof of the base’s existence and the rapid progress made.
Two 950 metre piers and three smaller ones would be enough to accommodate two carrier strike groups or amphibious assault ships.
Christian Le Miere, editor for Jane's Intelligence Review, said the complex underlined Beijing’s plan “to assert tighter control over this region".
"This is a challenge to any hegemonic power, particularly the US which still remains dominant in the region."
So far China has offered no public explanation for its building at Sanya.

Story from Telegraph News:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...rine-base.html
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence.
If you require any further information on permitted use, or a licence to republish any part of the Site (or any Content), please email us at syndication@telegraph.co.uk, or contact us by telephone on +44 20 7538 2921, Facsimile: +44 207 931 2867.

Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...rine-base.html

It's obviously not too much of a secret.

A couple of bunker busters would turn it into a tomb in short order.

I have to admit the photo's kind of negate the "secret" part and the fact that it is a military base means that it can threaten something its kind of the purpose to placing them lets face it all those ports on the British south coast can threaten Europe but I don't think they will.

As for the rest well its Chinese territory I guess they can build what they like on it.

i love ggogle earth

Nothing is secret anymore.

The only way to guard a secret now is to surround it with a bodyguard of lies.

Either that or radar jamming.

Originally Posted by justin1552

Either that or radar jamming.

That'll struggle to do anything about google earth

But you can always build a bunch of fake stuff. Keep the enemy guessing as to which is the real one.
All kind of cunning things have been done in the past... such as painting the runway to make it appear as if it were out of commission (i.e. full of craters) when in fact it was not. An apparent air strip staffed with personnel and a compliment of a full squadron of high tech, inflatable fighter planes (apparently capable of VTOL). Hiding the real stuff, showing the fake stuff... making the real stuff and the fake stuff exactly the same... making a whole load of guard posts to the point where it gets hard to tell which ones are actually being used...
etc etc etc.
Cheaper and less likely to cause cancer than electronic jamming.

I've got an issue with that submarine base. Why is that cave apparently a good few levels above sea level? Obviously it is above the tide line because if you look off to the side, there are trees at the same level as the cave. Obviously the Chinese would know that such a structure would be detected. What are they counting on? The sea level rising? No submarine is going to get into that cave unless the darn thing flies.

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

I've got an issue with that submarine base. Why is that cave apparently a good few levels above sea level? Obviously it is above the tide line because if you look off to the side, there are trees at the same level as the cave. Obviously the Chinese would know that such a structure would be detected. What are they counting on? The sea level rising? No submarine is going to get into that cave unless the darn thing flies.

Clearly you have never watched Stingray before, Chinese subs have limited flight capability either that or its the entrance to the crew car park.

At a guess that cave is probably meant to the the "surface entry point" and not a "submarine exit point".