Китайские атомные подводные лодки типа 091 "Хань"

Nuclear powered attack submarine class

The Type 091 (Chinese designation: 09 I; NATO reporting name: Han class) is a first generation nuclear powered attack submarine produced by China. It was the first nuclear submarine employed by the People's Liberation Army Navy Submarine Force, and the first indigenously produced nuclear attack submarine in Asia.

The Chinese naval nuclear power program started in July 1958 when the Central Military Commission gave approval to start the Type 091 submarine project. Mao Zedong declared that China would build nuclear attack submarines "even if it took ten thousand years." Peng Shilu was the first chief designer of this project. The first submarine in the class, Changzheng 1 ("Long March 1"), was commissioned in 1974; In 1983, Peng moved to the civilian development of nuclear power plants, and he was succeeded at the nuclear submarine project by Huang Xuhua. Another entered Japanese territorial waters near Ishigaki Island (part of Okinawa Prefecture) near Taiwan in November 2004, causing the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force to go on alert for the second time since the Second World War; China apologized for the trespass and blamed "technical reasons" on the submarine. The boats have received major upgrades and numerous refits since commissioning. They have six torpedo tubes and carry 20 torpedoes. Alternatively, they can carry 36 mines in their tubes. It is capable of firing sub launched variants of the C 801 anti ship missile as well as a range of indigenous and Russian torpedoes or mines. All remaining hulls have been refitted with new sonars, with Type H/SQ2 262B sonar manufactured by No. 613 Factory replacing the original Type 603 sonar on board. Anechoic tiles were added later to reduce noise levels.