US vs China Submarine Battle
Don’t you just love revenge?
Well, the Chinese sure do.
A couple of months ago, someone using Google Earth stumbled upon a photo of a new top secret Chinese submarine docked in China - a next generation Jin Class sub.
Websites across the US were quick to show the photo, which left the Chinese fuming (see below).
Well now, in an ironic turn of the tables, someone spotted a US nuclear sub in dry dock using publicly available aerial photos.
What is much worse for the US is that the photo quite clearly shows the top secret propeller - one of the key and most guarded secrets of any sub as they are highly complex shapes, and vital in maintaining high speed quiet cruising.
For decades - since the first spy satellites - all propellers have been carefully shrouded before the sub is put in dry dock. It appears the propeller being uncovered whilst the sub is out of the water is a massive breach of security protocol. And by chance it occurred at a time when publicly available photos were being taken of the area.
The US knows how sensitive propeller technology is and now know what its like to lose secrecy over some important technology - in 2000 the Swedish were mad when they found out Australia, a close US ally, sent two Swedish submarine props to the US for “polishing and modification” in 1998 and 1999.
Picture of the recently discovered US submarine prop below.
As you can imagine, Chinese websites have been very quick to publish the photo!
