Breaking news China is building a nuclear submarine base and US is scared.
Someone gave The Daily Telegraph satellite images that show a harbor which could house nuclear ballistic missile submarines and aircraft carriers.
Images show several warships and a network of underground tunnels at the Sanya base on the southern tip of Hainan island.
The tunnel entrances is estimated to be 60ft high, built into hillsides around the base the tunnel leads to caverns capable of hiding up to 20 nuclear submarines from spy satellites.
Satellite image of the harbour: click to enlarge
The US Department of Defence is pretty scared because China will have five 094 nuclear submarines operational by 2010 with each capable of carrying 12 JL-2 nuclear missiles.
China has diverted much of its resources from the huge Peoples Liberation Army to the navy, air force and missile development. An old Russian aircraft carrier, bought by Beijing has been picked over by naval architects who hope to "reverse engineer" the ship.
In the next five to 10 years the People's Liberation Navy is expected to build up to six carriers which will also coincide with the Royal Navy’s construction of two major carriers.
The location of the base will give the submarines access to very deep water exceeding 5,000 meters making them even harder to detect.
Britain’s Trident submarines have to remain on the surface when they leave Faslane in north east Scotland and cannot dive to depth until outside the Irish Sea.
This is a challenge to any hegemonic power, particularly the US which still remains dominant in the region. But so far China has offered no public explanation for its building at Sanya.
The images were obtained by Janes Intelligence Review after the periodical was given access to imagery from the commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe.
