Satellite imagery spotted a Chinese submarine with its nuclear ballistic missile hatches open while pier-side at a naval base with underground facilities facing the contested South China Sea.
According to the latest satellite image updated by Google Earth Pro, a high-powered desktop software version of Google Earth, a submarine was seen docking at one of the wharves at Longpo Naval Base on the island of Hainan in southern China with at least four of its missile hatches not closed.
User @benreuter_IMINT, an open-source intelligence analyst active on X, formerly Twitter, identified the submarine as one of the six Chinese Type 094 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. Each of these submarines is capable of carrying up to 12 long-range missiles for nuclear strikes.
Newsweek has contacted the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment by email.
Google Earth Pro
Longpo is known to be the home of China’s fleet of Type 094 submarines. It is equipped with six 754-foot wharves to moor 12 submarines, and an underground base protects them from attacks and surveillance. Newsweek previously reported on the base’s activity after reviewing satellite imagery.
In a 2023 report, the Pentagon said the Chinese military—which, with more than 370 ships and submarines, has the world’s largest navy—arms each of its Type 094 submarines with either the JL-2 or the JL-3 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, serving as the country’s sea-based nuclear deterrent.
The ranges of the JL-2 and the JL-3 missiles are 3,900 and 5,400 nautical miles, respectively, the Pentagon estimated. The former can strike the East Coast of the United States from the waters east of Hawaii, while the latter would be able to target parts of the U.S. mainland from China’s waters.
China probably conducted “near-continuous at-sea deterrence patrols” with its Type 094 submarines, the report said. Meanwhile, American nuclear-armed submarines are always on patrol, making it difficult for adversaries to track them all, which contributes to their survivability, according to a 2020 U.S. Department of Defense fact sheet.
Collin Koh, a senior fellow at Singapore’s Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, said on X that the new satellite image was a rare shot. This also “further reinforces reports of regular strategic deterrent patrols performed by these SSBNs,” he added, referring to Chinese nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.
Chi Guocang, a former Chinese submarine officer who taught at the country’s submarine academy, said the South China Sea, where China has territorial disputes with its neighbors, is a good place for the Chinese nuclear-armed submarines to maneuver and hide from the U.S. and its allied forces.
He said of the South China Sea earlier this year: “The average water depth reaches 1,200+ meters, and the sea area is fairly vast. There are many islands, reefs, sand tables, and trenches. The underwater geographical environment is complex.”
Beijing has never disclosed the stockpile of its nuclear weapons. In 2023, the U.S. military estimated that the country possessed more than 500 warheads. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said at least 72 Chinese nuclear warheads were assigned to the submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
The latest satellite image, which was captured on December 7, also showed a crane operating over the submarine’s open hatches from the wharf. It was not immediately clear whether this was a ballistic missile loading or unloading process, as @benreuter_IMINT said in the post on X.
Tom Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submariner and an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said on X that the presence of a crane and the open missile hatches did not necessarily mean a loading or unloading process, as it could be some other maintenance.
