Only part of their fleet lagging behind is nuclear submarines.
This is the actual threat in the IOR not chinese nuclear carrier.
New Mystery Submarine Signals China’s Rapid Undersea Expansion
China is launching submarines at a pace unmatched by any other nation. Its latest design, a distinctive and innovative vessel that dispenses with the traditional sail, marks another step in the evolution of an increasingly capable and technologically advanced submarine force. With little...
www.navalnews.com
Source: The Japan Times
New mystery Chinese submarine highlights efforts to build up force
@Parthu they built a second next gen SSN class other than the Type 095. Thoughts?
New mystery Chinese submarine highlights efforts to build up force
@Parthu they built a second next gen SSN class other than the Type 095. Thoughts?
Some of the PLA watchers I'm following are referring to this as the Type-095A.
As per them, the 095 spotted earlier is most likely going to be a one-off model. All subsequent boats will be of the 095A pattern, which should be the new standard PLAN SSN/SSGN design.
They're saying it's analogous to Russia's Yasen-class, where they built a single Project-885 boat and all subsequent hulls were of the 885M design. What that means is that the 095 was possibly built to an older spec, using older technologies or otherwise served some kind of technology-demonstration purpose. Meanwhile 095A could be series-produced.
Note that very little is known about the 095/95A. Speaking from what I've gathered so far...
In terms of configuration, most estimates put the new Chinese boats at around 9,000 to 10,000T displacement. So roughly the same size as P77. Imagery of submarine modules at Chinese yards indicate that both 095 and 096 SSBN could likely be single-hulled unlike P77 which is going to be double-hulled. Unless we're looking at some kind of hybrid hull configuration (some compartments single, some double) like some newer Russian boats, this would mark a significant advancement in both design & metallurgy.
Some information I've come across says that the Bohai aka Huludao shipyard has been procuring 38 MWe turbo-generators, assuming this is for the 095/95A's propulsive motor, it would be marginally more powerful than the 35 MWe one that our future boats are supposed to get. It also indicates they'll be having a roughly ~200 MWth PWR powering it. So very similar in output to our CLWR-B2.
VLS & Pumpjet have already been visually confirmed for the 095/95A.
Overall, it'd say they'd be pretty neck-and-neck with P77. Quite evenly matched in terms of capabilities on paper. Of course the main difference is, the Chinese boats are already here while our P77 is well over a decade away. By the time the 1st P77 is commissioned, PLAN will have over a dozen of these new-gen SSN/SSGNs.
For type 93 I heard Chinese actually had 2 reactors each capable of 75 MWth. So do you think for Type 095 they will have 1 or 2 reactors?
The 095/95A are virtually guaranteed to have a single reactor in the ~200 MWth range.
As of whether the earlier SSNs had single or dual reactors, it's what @Ashwin posted. 'Conventional' wisdom points at dual-reactor but there's no real evidence otherwise.