China's newest nuclear attack submarine sank in the spring, causing serious problems for one of the country's priority weapons programs, writes The Wall Steet Journal (WSJ), citing US officials.
The submarine was built by China State Shipbuilding Corp., a state-owned company, and was docked on the Yangtze River until late May. The Zhou-class vessel that sank is the first of a new class of Chinese nuclear submarines designed to be more maneuverable.
The submarine has been salvaged, but it will likely be many months before it can be put to sea.
U.S. officials found no signs that Chinese officials had sampled the water or the nearby environment for radiation. It is possible that Chinese personnel were killed or injured when the submarine sank, but US officials say they do not know if there were any casualties.
The US does not know for sure whether the submarine was carrying nuclear fuel at the time it sank, but experts outside the US government said it was likely.
"The sinking of a new nuclear submarine built at a new plant will delay China's plans to expand its nuclear submarine fleet," said Brent Sadler, a senior fellow at the Washington Heritage Foundation think tank and a retired U.S. Navy SEAL. nuclear submarine officer. This is important."
The first public indication that something was amiss at the shipyard near Wuhan came in the summer when Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. submarine officer and assistant senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, noted on social media unusual activity of the location also captured by commercial satellite imagery.
Shugart speculated that there may have been an incident involving a new type of submarine, but it was not known at the time to be nuclear-powered.
"Can you imagine an American nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government keeping it quiet and not telling anyone about it?, Shugart said in an interview this week with the WSJ.
A Chinese embassy spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither the army nor the local authorities have confirmed the case.
The incident, which Chinese authorities have tried to cover up until now, happened at a shipyard near Wuhan in late May or early June.
This comes at a time when China is working hard to expand its fleet, including nuclear submarines.
The Pentagon identifies China as its primary long-term challenge. US officials say Beijing is using political and military pressure to try to coerce Taiwan, a separately governed island that Beijing claims is part of its territory.
China claims that its purpose in building a world-class military is to protect its overseas interests.
Underwater technology has long been an area of US advantage, but China is pushing hard to close the gap.
China seeks to diversify nuclear submarine production. Production is centered in the northeastern city of Huludao, but China is now turning to the production of nuclear attack submarines at the Wuchang Shipyard near Wuhan.
Beijing has 48 diesel-powered attack submarines and six nuclear-powered attack submarines at the end of 2022, according to a Pentagon report released last year on China's military might.
The publication recalls that the US also suffered similar costly failures. In 1969, the nuclear-powered USS Guitarro sank after a series of errors by construction workers. It was officially commissioned only 32 months later.