![]() ![]() and the U.K., submarines are not considered primary ASW platforms, and outside of NATO and Japan most navies are pretty bad at surface- and air-based ASW, so in the rest of the world it doesn’t make sense to compare numbers of submarines on each side the way you would, for example, numbers of air-to-air fighters,” Cote explained.Īll that is to say that Taiwan’s submarine program is a big deal. These forces are not a strong defense against even a small flotilla of Taiwanese subs. It doesn’t necessarily matter that the Chinese navy possesses around 70 attack submarines of its own plus scores of sonar-equipped surface warships and maritime patrol planes. “The shallow, noisy waters of the Taiwan Strait greatly favor submarines over air and surface forces,” said Owen Cote, a submarine expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ![]() The Chinese fleet could struggle to detect the Taiwanese boats before they attack. The Taiwanese navy obviously plans to deploy the new submarines in the anti-shipping role, targeting the Chinese ships that would carry an invasion force across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait. Their armament includes Mark 48 torpedoes and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The new subs feature a double hull-a rare design feature in non-Russian boats-plus lithium-ion batteries for underwater propulsion. They are roughly similar to the Zwaardvis-class boats, indicating that CSBC’s engineers reverse-engineered the design. Promotional materials from the November production-launch revealed the basic shape of the new submarines. ![]()
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