Posted on 05/03/2008 7:46:40 PM PDT by neverdem
China has secretly built an underground nuclear submarine base in the South China Sea, posing a new threat to powers in the region — a development the Pentagon says it has known about for at least two years.
Satellite photos of the base obtained by FOX News show a large harbor and massive tunnels that defense experts say could shelter many nuclear subs.
The Defense Department has estimated that by 2010 China will have five operational 094-class nuclear submarines capable of carrying 12 nuclear missiles each, according to the Daily Telegraph.
According to the Defense Department, China has 57 attack submarines, but these satellite pictures suggest their 094-class nuclear submarine may already be available.
“It’s very significant to have further visual evidence of the kinds of military build-up that they’ve been engaged in for some time,” said Stephen Yates, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council.
Photos of the base were taken on November 28 by DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite, and first appeared in the military journal Jane’s Intelligence Review.
The secret base, known as Sanya, is located on the southern tip of Hainan Island in the South China Sea. Defense experts say the harbor feeds into waters so deep that the submarines could launch without having to surface, making it difficult to detect them from the sky.
That may pose a threat to U.S. naval dominance in the region, and to the nations just hundreds of miles from Hainan’s shores.
“It really is a point of force projection out into the South China Sea, and the South China Sea is a very, very important waterway critical to energy security,” said Yates.
The Pentagon has known about the secret submarine base for more than two years. It first showed up in press reports in 2007 and was mentioned in...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
LOL! Anyone else find that funny?
Ping.
Call me a cynic...Or just someone who takes pictures like this at face value...
But it looks to me like the opening into the side of the coast there is a bit above mean sea level???
Unless the Chinese have developed some sort of new propulsion device that gives their subs a “Flipper” manuever...I’m not sure how the subs are going to get inside the barn there...
Yes, for some reason I see a road (bridge) going across the front of that opening...But that looks like a problem waiting to happen when they need that bridge to work and it decides to break down...
Not much secrecy here...
You 007’ers are really cracking me up though!!! ;-)
Just a guess but I'm thinking it's because we're not a war with China.
Digging holes is not exactly high-tech. I'm sure China could have done it without help from the Clintons.
It is widely believed in the intelligence community that the Chinese used stolen plans for a secret American sub base for the construction.
Disney/ABC revealed that the plans were actually those used in the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
It’s the subs that go in the holes that are a little harder to make. Chinese spying during the Clinton years gave them the know how to build those subs.
Having seen pictures of those subs I suggest that they owe more to early model Soviet Deltas than anything the U.S. has made for the past 50 years.
It’s the subs that go in the holes that are a little harder to make. Chinese spying during the Clinton years gave them the know how to build those subs.
If the subs go into those holes, than sooner or later they will want to come back out. Now what if those holes closed up somehow???
Jack
Last I heard, the United States has not declared war on anyone at this point.
However, since we are not at war with Communist China, are you suggesting they are not a direct threat to the U.S. and our allies?
Do you not believe as they build up their military into a world class, massive war machine, they will not use it on us, or our allies?
Just guessing, but I believe it's only a matter of time when this will occur, not if. And if we stand by and watch, they'll eventually have us on our knees, both economically, and militarily.
Are you invested in Communist China?
Agreed. But there are ways to do these types of operations, and to put out enough defensive sensors to preclude such operations from occurring is a very, very expensive operation. Just as the ocean hides submarines, it hides much smaller things as well.
Maybe we already have? Yah Think?
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