China’s Newest Nuclear Submarine Sank, Setting Back Its Military Modernization

The first public indication that something was amiss at the shipyard near Wuhan came in the summer when Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. submarine officer and an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, wrote a series of social-media posts noting the unusual activity of the floating cranes, which was captured by commercial satellite imagery.

Shugart surmised that there might have been an incident that involved a new type of submarine, but he didn’t know at the time that it was nuclear-powered.

“Can you imagine a U.S. nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government hushes it up and doesn’t tell anybody about it? I mean, Holy Cow!” Shugart said in an interview this week with The Wall Street Journal.

While the submarine was salvaged, it will likely take many months before it can be put to sea.

“The whole boat would be full of water,” Shugart said. “You’d have to clean out all the electronics. The electric motors may need to be replaced. It would be a lot of work.”

American officials haven’t detected any indication that Chinese officials have sampled the water or nearby environment for radiation. It is possible Chinese personnel were killed or injured when the sub sank, but U.S. officials say they don’t know if there were casualties.

Shugart said that the risk of a nuclear leak was likely to be low as the sub hadn’t ventured out to sea and its reactors were probably not operating at a high power level.

Read the full story and more from The Wall Street Journal.