Sunday Pictures: Song Flotilla Exercises

The FAS analysis earlier this year that looked at PLAN submarine patrols has contributed to a lot of misunderstanding. Too often I'll see a discussion that involves some PLAN submarine and some poster will cite the FAS article and claim only 7 patrols. They never read what FAS used as a definition of patrol was though, but we did.

In reality, PLAN submarines are very active, they just don't 'patrol' based on the FAS definition. It is like saying the bulk of the US Navy isn't active because the fleet does all of its training off the east or west coast. If the US Navy area of operations was only the east and west coast, the US Navy wouldn't have a large number of patrols either. Below are new pictures of some Song class submarines that are never active because they don't 'patrol' by the FAS definition. Click for high resolution.




We have discussed multiple submarine flotilla exercises in the past, here and here. We continue to observe the build up of the Type 022 and the conventional submarine fleet in China, which we have previously described as streetfighter and wolfpacks. Feng has new pictures of a third Yuan (Type 039A variant) for example, which is not the same submarine as new modified Yuan we have observed under construction. That means pictures continue to account for 4 Yuan class submarines.

Looking Ahead: This week we intend to focus on the theme of FY09 shipbuilding, but as a side note we will also take a hard look at the PLAN build up utilizing a number of new publications that have been released over the last few weeks, and try to clear the view of the PLAN buildup and reconcile against the 2008 DoD report. China is the only nation among the top 30+ economies that hides its military purchases, and is building naval forces at an incredible rate. Until they declare transparency, they continue to force the hand of regional nations to take a cold war posture at sea towards China. On that note, we'll be reviewing this article this week as well.