Exposed Undersea: PLA Navy Officer Reflections on China’s Not-So-Silent Service
June 24, 2025 Guest Author Leave a comment
By Ryan D. Martinson
While much of the international attention on China’s naval buildup is focused on its rapidly modernizing surface fleet, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is also taking bold steps to field a first-rate submarine force. By the end of this year, the service could have as many as 25 Yuan-class submarines, which are among the world’s most advanced diesel-electric boats. Its small-but-growing fleet of nuclear-powered attack (SSN), guided missile (SSGN), and ballistic missile (SSBN) submarines has achieved major technological upgrades, and with the benefit of a massive production facility in Huludao, may be on the cusp of significant expansion.
The PLAN is investing in submarines because it recognizes their tremendous potential deterrent and warfighting value. That value, however, hinges on the ability of their boats to operate undetected. According to Chinese military experts however, that basic requirement cannot be guaranteed—not even close. Writing in the November 2023 issue of Military Art (军事学术), a prestigious journal published by the Chinese Academy of Military Science, three PLAN officers revealed that the peacetime operations of Chinese submarines are highly vulnerable to the U.S. Navy’s undersea surveillance system, raising serious questions about their strategic and operational utility.
Entitled “Effectively Responding to the Threat to China’s Undersea Space Posed by the Powerful Enemy’s Three-Dimensional Surveillance System,” the article deserves special attention for two main reasons. First, while not an official assessment as might appear in a “white paper” or a “five-year plan,” it reflects the opinions of PLAN experts whose views are informed by access to classified intelligence and subject to peer review. The first author, Senior Captain Zhang Ning (张宁), is a faculty member at the Naval University of Engineering, College of Weapons Engineering. He co-authored the piece with Commander Zhang Tongjian (张同剑), from the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla (Unit 91257), and Lieutenant Fan Zhaopeng (范赵鹏) of the PLAN Oceanographic and Meteorological Center (Unit 91001). Second, the publication in which the article appears—Military Art—is an internal PLA journal (军内刊物). This enables the authors to share their expertise with a candor that is rarely (if ever) seen in publicly-available PLA sources.
The U.S. Undersea Surveillance System
https://cimsec.org/exposed-undersea-pla-navy-officer-reflections-on-chinas-not-so-silent-service/
