Mingi Hyun’s return to blogging about maritime Asia and South Korea’s new submarine program inspired me to put together a comparison of the sub fleets in northeast Asia.
I consulted The Military Balance 2008 for the numbers. Here are the definitions of the classes indicated above:
SSBN=ballistic-missile submarine nuclear-fuelled
SSN= attack submarine nuclear powered
SSGN=SSN with dedicated non-ballistic missile launchers
SSG=attack submarine diesel, non-ballistic missile launchers
SS=diesel submarine
SSK=Patrol submarine with ASW capability
SSC=diesel submarine coastal
SSI=diesel submarine inshore
This is purely a quantitative comparison, simply to give a sense of the size of the fleets involved, and does not reflect quality.
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ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » Sign us up for cheap, compact subs too! added these pithy words on Jun 10 08 at 1:01 am[...] also points to Asia Pacific as a region with growing submarine procurement.1 I have compared the submarine fleets of Northeast Asia before, and they do indeed put Canada to shame. Cheap, compact submarines is the direction Canada should [...]
Adrian added these pithy words on 18 Apr 08 at 4:09 pmAre those numbers everything listed on paper, or everything that is seaworthy and doesn’t sink?
mihnea added these pithy words on 18 Apr 08 at 5:10 pmin nk’s case, i’m asking the same thing. their two row-boats must be mightyier.
Younghusband added these pithy words on 18 Apr 08 at 10:35 pmThe numbers include everything and anything the IISS can count. For example a number of the Chinese subs are still undergoing sea trials, and not considered operational. Canada has 4 subs to its name, however only one is operational, one is in drydock and won’t be repaired until 2010, and the other two have been relegated to spare parts.
aceface added these pithy words on 19 Apr 08 at 1:37 amJapan actually has two more subs now used for training,but can be operational in short time.
Younghusband added these pithy words on 21 Apr 08 at 1:23 pmAceface, do you have a source for that? According to the 2005 MTDP Japan is officially down the to the 16 subs as stipulated by the NDPG. I sure would like to know about those two extra subs. Thanks.
Aceface added these pithy words on 21 Apr 08 at 2:32 pmRead that in 世界の艦船issue specializing Japan’s sub fleet.
J-Wiki says it’s 16 and one training sub.
It seems missing sub is now on duty here.
http://www.jmsdf-kure-museum.jp/index.php
Younghusband added these pithy words on 25 Apr 08 at 12:36 pmThanks Aceface, I found the two training subs in Sekai no kansen (2008), 684, pp. 91. The Asashio TSS-3601 and Yukishio TSS-3605. Sweet.
Aceface added these pithy words on 25 Apr 08 at 5:35 pmThese two training subs are still new(only 16 years old when they were moved to training vessel).MSDF has to retire these ships to maintain 16-subs-scheme.
Another reason for this short life cycle of J-subs is because of two submarine shipyards exist in Japan,one for Ishikawajima Harima Industry and other for Mitsubishi Heavy Industry.And these shipyards demand shipbuilding without any blank to maintain skilled workers.Defense Ministry can’t close down and reduce the shipyard to one for the political reasons,thus J-subs have short lives on frontline duty.
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