Type-98 Strategic Nuclear Submarines in Building

Future Nuclear Submarines

After disclosure Types 094, 095 and 096 nuclear submarines, people outside China have great concerns whether China really has any Type 098 strategic nuclear submarines.
Recently, a US media has said in its report, US satellite has detected China’s construction of 2 new-type fourth-generation strategic nuclear submarines, each of which is equipped with 12 sets of launching devices for ballistic missiles.
It is said that a Chinese Type 098 strategic nuclear submarine has a displacement of 28,300 tons, can submerge to the depth of 5,200 meters and is wide in size.
As it is propelled by a superconductive system, its noise does not exceed 20 dB. It has free maneuverability due to several vector propelling devices located in various areas of its body. It is a real intelligent stealth submarine undetectable due to very low noise.
It has 50 torpedo launching tubes for conventional defense while its major weapons are the 24 new JL-5 SLBMs with 80 separately guided warheads each, in which 20-35 are decoys. However effective the enemy’s missile defense systems are, it can be absolutely sure that 84 enemy cities will be destroyed at the first round of attack.
However, there is another less sensationalizing speculation that by the year 2025, China will have 3-4 aircraft carrier battle groups and 6 strategic nuclear submarines. Each submarine carries 12 SLBMs with 3 nuclear warheads each. Two of them will keep routine patrol while a third of them will be deployed when there is an emergency.
The 108 nuclear warheads they carry will constitute effective deterrent against the U.S.
Source: qianzhan.com “Foreign media: PLA is building 2 most advanced type 098 strategic nuclear submarines” (summary by Chan Kai Yee)