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North Korea now threatens to sink US Navy's nuclear-powered submarine USS Michigan The Ohio-class submarine is stationed in the South Korean port of Busan. North Korea has issued a fresh threat to sink the US Navy's nuclear-powered submarine which is currently stationed in the Korean peninsula waters. Pyongyang said the vessel would be turned into an "underwater ghost". USS Michigan, armed with cruise missiles, arrived at the South Korean port of Busan on 25 April to take part in "routine" exercises. The Ohio-class submarine is being joined by a large fleet of the US Navy's warships led by the supercarrier...

Thailand's cabinet has approved the first of three planned submarine purchases from China worth $393 million, a government spokesman said on Monday. The plan to buy the three Chinese-built submarines worth 36 billion baht ($1.05 billion) was confirmed in July, signalling warming ties with the regional superpower since relations with the United States cooled after a May 2014 military coup. The first submarine purchase was approved last week. "The cabinet approved one submarine purchase on April 18," spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd told Reuters, adding that a budget of 13.5 billion baht ($393 million) has been earmarked for the Yuan Class S26T...

Itaguaí, Brazil: In a vast hangar, Brazilian technicians work on the enormous cylindrical hulls of two submarines, but in a country buffeted by economic crisis and corruption the vessels already face stormy waters. The hangar at a naval facility in Itaguai, south of Rio de Janeiro, is 125 feet (38 meters) tall, an impressive structure where the future submarines, lying in separate sections, are being equipped before eventual assembly. In all, five submarines are planned, one of them nuclear-powered, with the first scheduled for launching in July 2018. The bid to transform Brazil's small submarine fleet was won by French...

Project 885 Yasen-class fourth-generation nuclear submarine © Lev Fedoseyev/TASS TASS-FACTBOX. March 31, 2017. The Sevmash Shipyard in Severodvinsk in northern Russia has floated out the second Project 885 Yasen-class nuclear submarine Kazan. The Project 885 (08850) Yasen-class fourth-generation multipurpose nuclear submarine was developed in the 1990s by the St. Petersburg-based Malakhit Design Bureau of Maritime Machine-Building under the direction of Chief Designer Vladimir Popov. The submarine is based on the Projects 705(K) Lira and 971 Shchuka-B. Sevmash, which is located in Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk Region and is part of the United Ship-Building Corporation, is the shipyard engaged in the...

Japan's first submarine to be powered by lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries will be commissioned in March 2020, doing away with lead-acid batteries and a Stirling air-independent propulsion (AIP) system. With the arrival of this eleventh Soryu-class submarine the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) will be the world's first navy to field a conventional submarine powered by Li-ion batteries. VAdm (Retired) Masao Kobayashi, former commander of the JMSDF's Fleet Submarine Force, explained at UDT Asia in Singapore on 18 January that the new type 'will change conventional submarine operations dramatically'. While Li-ion batteries offered similar endurance to an AIP system combined with...

Fielding a nuclear-tipped cruise missile that can be launched from a submarine will give Pakistan something it has wanted for years—a credible nuclear second strike deterrent. Earlier in the week the Pakistani Navy announced that they successfully test-fired just that for the first. Regardless of if the missile launch was as successful as Pakistan claims it was or not, more tests will follow and it’s likely just a matter of time before the missile becomes operational. Second strike capability means that even if a full-on surprise nuclear barrage were to knock out a country’s nuclear weapons capability, that country still...

NEW DELHI: A Chinese Navy nuclear-powered attack submarine which docked at the Karachi harbour in May took aboard Pakistani naval officers and sailors to give them a first-hand glimpse of how the submarine works. This was not a simple case of access being given to a close military ally. The Indian Navy is convinced that it is a matter of time before Islamabad leases a Chinese nuclear submarine. The Pakistan Navy personnel who were on the submarine may be part of their first team to train on Chinese nuclear submarines, it is believed. On Friday, NDTV broadcast images of an...

Pakistan on Monday successfully test-fired its first Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead up to 450km from an undisclosed location in the Indian Ocean, giving the country a "credible" second-strike capability, the military said. The missile, Babur-3, was fired from an underwater, mobile platform and hit its target with precise accuracy, the Inter Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistani military said in a statement. Babur-3, which has a range of 450km, is a sea-based variant of Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) Babur-2+ , which was successfully tested earlier in December, last year. The Babur-3...

A Chinese nuclear-powered submarine was reportedly docked at a port in Pakistan, sources privy to the development said here on Friday. They added that it could be there as Beijing was selling eight submarines to Islamabad, four of which were to be built in the port city of Karachi. The image, dating back to May 2016, was found on Google Earth. It appears to be a nuclear submarine, one of the latest with China, according to experts. The submarine was later seen crossing the Malacca Straits in June 2016. Submarines have to surface while crossing straits as per protocol. Chinese...

In March 2015, one of the largest nuclear-powered warships in the world was “sunk” by one of the smallest. The Saphir, a French nuclear attack submarine, reportedly penetrated the defenses of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and scored simulated torpedo hits on her. The incident, originally reported by the French Navy, was later suppressed.

North Korea’s GORAE-class, experimental, ballistic missile submarine may be preparing to put to sea, possibly heralding further testing of sea-launched ballistic missiles or SLBMs. North Korea has tested SLBMs from land and sea multiple times over the last two years. The most recent test possibly may have been in December of this year from a land-based test site.

When the Defense Ministry’s director-general received the list of the 10 police investigators appointed to handle the submarine and Sa’ar 6-class corvette affair, ministry officials raised an eyebrow at the size of the police team that is planning on leaving no stone unturned in their offices. Defense Ministry workers and IDF officers are already being called for questioning. Department heads are required to open files and hand information over to the police investigators. The investigation tricks are underway too, creating even more embarrassment and confusion. One of the first people to be questioned was the Defense Ministry’s legal adviser, attorney...

South Korea started on Wednesday construction of a new 3,000-tonne submarine that could be equipped with ballistic missiles, local media reported. MOSCOW (Sputnik) — South Korea is expected to build the Chang Bogo-III batch 1 submarine, which would be the third vessel of this class in the national navy, as part of its plan to increase maritime capacities in the context of threats posed by the North, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the country's arms procurement body. Hyundai Heavy Industries company was expected to build the 3,000-tonne vessel, which would be able to...

AUSTRALIA’S 12 new submarines will be the most “potent weapon” the nation has ever known featuring lethal technology designed to assert the nation’s space in the world. That’s according to Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne who said the addition of 12 Shortfin Barracuda submarines to Australia’s arsenal will reassure President-elect Donald Trump the country is not shirking its military duties by being “strategic bludgers”. Mr Pyne’s visit to the sprawling military-style factory was a chance for the Minister to see for himself the kind of facilities that will be built in Adelaide where the submarines will be created over the...

AUSTRALIA’S 12 new submarines will be the most “potent weapon” the nation has ever known featuring lethal technology designed to assert the nation’s space in the world. That’s according to Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne who said the addition of 12 Shortfin Barracuda submarines to Australia’s arsenal will reassure President-elect Donald Trump the country is not shirking its military duties by being “strategic bludgers”. ..... The 4500 tonne vessel will be 97 metres long and fit 60 crew. It will be conventionally powered unlike its nuclear-powered French equivalent, and has been chosen for its stealth capability, size and jet-propulsion technology....

In 2010, China’s first—and only, so far—Qing-class submarine sailed out to sea following nearly six years of construction. Displacing 6,628 tons submerged and measuring exactly the length of a football field at one hundred yards long (ninety-two meters), it is by most accounts the largest diesel submarine ever built. Unlike the vast majority of diesel submarines, the Type 032 can fire not only long-range cruise missiles, but submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with the capacity to send a nuclear warhead across the ocean. Beijing prefers to keep its cards close to the chest, leading to speculation about the Type 032—is it...

NEW DELHI: The sinking of PNS Ghazi during the Indo-Pak war of 1971 has long been an unsolved mystery. With Karan Johar sharing the first poster of his movie, The Ghazi attack (India’s first war-at-sea film that is based on the mysterious sinking of PNS Ghazi) the other day, the debate on what caused the blast on board the Pakistani vessel has been renewed, reports foreign media. On December 5, 1971, a few local fishermen visited India’s Eastern Naval Command with pieces of wreckage and reported the presence of a large oil slick in the area. As a result of...

BEIJING --- The website of Taiwan's China Times reported on November 29 that with the increase of national strength, protecting overseas interests has become the strategic core of the Chinese mainland. According to a Pakistan naval personnel, the PLA Navy will deploy submarines in south Pakistan’s Gwadar Port so as to protect the ports and trade shipping lines in this region. China may also build a military base in Gwadar Port to provide maintenance support for the PLA naval fleet operating in the Indian Ocean and provide support for the PLA Navy to conduct missions and tasks in the future....

A news report on Chinese state television provided a rare look inside one of the submarines of the Chinese Navy. The Kilo-class submarine was purchased from Russia during the 1990s and is the tip of Beijing's spear in its disputes with neighbors. The People's Republic of China bought twelve 636-class submarines in the 1990s and early 2000s. The submarines, known as the "Kilo" class to NATO, were originally designed by the Soviet Union to operate in Cold War European coastal waters. After the fall of the USSR and the end of the Warsaw Pact, the 636 class became a useful...

Aboard the Vigilant -- “There is a chance to spend 24 hours aboard an SSBN, are you available?” When I receive the message from the French Navy, I don’t even take the time to think about it. A chance to spend a day inside a nuclear ballistic missile submarine? “Yes, of course,” I answer right away. I get giddy just thinking about it. A chance to see from the inside one of the most secret places in the French military. What will it be like aboard this metal monster as it carries its nuclear warhead load 350 meters below the...