Undersea Threat: China Accelerates Yuan Attack Submarines & Jin-Class JL-3 Nuclear Missiles

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) China’s growing fleet of attack and nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines is shrouded in a haze of mystery to a large extent, given the lack of available detail about their technologies and performance parameters.

PLAN of Submarine Attack

What is known is that the People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) has been deploying its newest attack submarine around Taiwan for military exercises, the most recent one taking place during U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island, according to an August, 2022 report in “The Mirror.”

Very little information seems available about China’s new Type-039C Yuan submarines, yet it does seem apparent that the PRC is working intensely to challenge U.S. Navy undersea superiority, according to multiple Pentagon reports in recent years.

In 2021, the Pentagon’s annual China military report stated that, at that time, China operated six Jin-class SSBNs, or nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines, armed with JL-2 missiles, yet the People’s Liberation Army is preparing to produce a far more lethal, longer-range JL-3 nuclear armed ballistic missile variant.

“As the PRC fields newer, more capable, and longer ranged SLBMs such as the JL-3, the PLAN will gain the ability to target the continental United States from littoral waters, and thus may consider bastion operations to enhance the survivability of its sea-based deterrent,” DoD’s 2021 “Report on Military and Security Developments involving the People’s Republic of China” states.

Unlike the JL-2 which fires at more limited ranges, the now-in-development JL-3 will reportedly operate with an ability to travel as far as 5,600 miles. This means Jin-class submarines will not need to operate closer to shore to hold the continental U.S. at risk.

“The current range limitations of the JL-2 will require the JIN to operate in areas north and east of Hawaii if the PRC seeks to target the east coast of the United States,” the Pentagon report states. The JL-3 changes this substantially.