The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 398 Direction Selection
During World War II, submarines demonstrated amazing combat power and attracted the attention of many countries.

However, during World War II, submarines also exposed a big problem, which is how long submarines can continue to sail underwater.

The time a submarine can operate underwater is severely limited by the amount of battery power it can hold. Even at the lowest speed, it must surface to recharge after a while. During the charging process, the submarine is very vulnerable to attack.

Another limitation is the maximum speed that the batteries on the submarine can reach and how long it can last. In particular, the maximum speed underwater is much lower than the speed on the surface. If a submarine wants to follow a high-speed ship, it must surface and use its diesel engine to output power to barely catch up with the slower fast ship.

But in this case, the submarine will lose the protection of sea water and its combat advantage.

Therefore, in order to expand the tactical value of submarines and significantly increase their sustained operation time under the sea surface, the development of alternative power sources has always been an important goal of submarine research.

So, the development of nuclear submarines came about!
The world's first nuclear submarine was developed and built by the US Navy, the USS Nautilus.

Both the United States and the Soviet Union have been vigorously developing nuclear submarines, and their nuclear submarine technology is far ahead of other countries.

For example, the United States has 10 types of nuclear submarines: Nautilus, Ray, Bonito, Thresher, Sturgeon, Los Angeles, Washington, Ethan Allen, Lafayette, and Ohio.

Among them, the 'Ohio class' belongs to the fourth generation of strategic nuclear submarines, that is, ballistic missile nuclear submarines, while the 'Los Angeles' class is the fifth generation of attack nuclear submarines.

For example, the Soviet Union. The development of the Soviet nuclear submarine force was later than that of the United States. In the 50s, in order to counter the US Navy's nuclear-powered submarines, the Soviet Union began to design and build nuclear-powered submarines.

The Soviet Union's first generation of nuclear attack submarines was the 'N' class nuclear submarine. From 1965 to the present, the Soviet Union has built the second generation of nuclear submarines, the 'V' class. There are three models of the 'V' class.

The third generation of nuclear submarines, the 'A-class', were built between 1970 and 1983.

After the third generation of nuclear submarines, the Soviet Union built the fourth generation 'O' class (Oscar) in 1978. Currently, both ships have been completed and are in service.

It can be said that in terms of nuclear submarines, although the Soviet Union developed later than the United States, it was not inferior at all.

Whether it is the 'O' class nuclear submarine or the 'Akula' strategic nuclear submarine (NATO code name 'Typhoon' class), they are nuclear submarines comparable to the 'Ohio' class and 'Los Angeles' class, and are also the most advanced nuclear submarines in the world today.

The development of Chinese submarines came much later. It was not until 1957 that the first domestically imitated conventional-powered submarine, the Type 03 (Soviet Type 613), entered service. As the first domestically imitated submarine, the Type 03 submarine was not completely independently developed and built, but it achieved a breakthrough in conventional submarines, trained a group of submarine designers and shipyard technical workers, solved a large number of technical problems related to submarine manufacturing, and laid the foundation for subsequent domestically produced submarines.

Subsequently, in 1966, the first domestically-made conventional-powered ballistic missile submarine, the Type 031 (Soviet Type 629), entered service.

Speaking of the Type 031 submarine, it definitely has a tragic fate. It could have been built successfully under the premise of Soviet experts and instruments and materials provided by the Soviet Union, but due to the breakdown of relations between the two sides, its construction work was seriously affected. It was finally successfully built with the efforts of Chinese scientific researchers.

Although there is only one Type 031 submarine, its successful construction enabled the Chinese Navy to have a submarine capable of launching submarine-launched ballistic missiles for the first time.

The Type 033 submarine also suffered a similar fate. China went through untold hardships. After the breakdown of relations between the two sides led to the interruption of the supply of purchased equipment and the withdrawal of experts, it was finally built, allowing my country to master the construction technology of medium-sized conventional submarines.

It was not until 1974 that the Type 035 submarine, the first conventional-powered submarine designed and built by my country, entered service, marking my country's real independent capability to develop conventional-powered submarines. The Type 035 submarine is about 76 meters long, 7.6 meters wide, has an underwater displacement of about 2113 tons, a standard maximum diving depth of about 300 meters, a maximum speed of 18 knots, and a full complement of about 57 people.

Although the overall performance of the Type 035 submarine is not outstanding, it is the first submarine independently developed by my country and the beginning of domestically produced submarines, which can be said to be a milestone.

The Type 035 submarine is already China's most advanced conventional submarine.

As for nuclear submarines, China's development was also much later. It was not until 1974 that the first attack nuclear submarine designed and built by my country, the Type 091 attack nuclear submarine, was put into service, allowing my country to have nuclear submarines.

It was independently designed and built without any external help, and all parts were domestically produced. This can be considered a miracle in naval history.

It is precisely because of the deterrent power of nuclear submarines that my country's national defense strength and international prestige have been significantly improved.

The Type 091 nuclear submarine is about 108 meters long, 11 meters wide, with an underwater displacement of about 5000 tons, a standard maximum diving depth of about 300 meters, a maximum speed of about 25 knots, and a full complement of about 75 people.

It was not until last year, in 1983, that the first domestically-produced strategic nuclear submarine, the Type 092, was put into service, marking my country's ability to independently develop ballistic missile nuclear submarines.

Although the Type 092 strategic nuclear submarine has not yet conducted submarine-launched missile experiments, it is definitely a strategic-level deterrent force.

Of course, nuclear submarines are excellent and are seen as the trend of the times, but that does not mean that conventional submarines will be eliminated.

In fact, nuclear submarines and conventional submarines each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages of nuclear submarines are obvious. They have huge advantages over conventional submarines in terms of endurance and speed on the surface and underwater, and nuclear submarines do not need to be frequently ventilated. But at the same time, nuclear submarines also have disadvantages.

The shortcomings of nuclear submarines are mainly reflected in two points. First, the technology is difficult and the construction cost is high. The nuclear reactor alone can take an ordinary country decades to study. This is why there are so few countries that own nuclear submarines. Only the five permanent members of the UN Security Council have nuclear submarines. Second, nuclear power plants have their inherent dangers. The marine environment where nuclear submarines are located is extremely complex, which seriously affects the safety of nuclear power plants. It is complicated to deal with emergencies. In wartime, they also face the threat of enemy situations, so the crew bears certain risks.

In addition, nuclear submarines are larger and noisier than conventional submarines, have a longer construction period, and are expensive.

Conventional submarines have shortcomings, but their advantages are also obvious, namely, low noise, low price and short construction period.

The noise of a submarine can be "drowned" in the vast ocean background noise when it reaches about 90 decibels, and it cannot be detected by modern sonar.

Liu Tao can easily reduce the noise of conventional submarines to below 90 decibels.

　The next two chapters will come later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)