https://www.scmp.com/rss/519867/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Amber Wang Amber Wang At the Middle East’s largest defence exhibition, a Chinese state-owned shipbuilding giant is showcasing a new surface-to-subsurface delivery vehicle designed for frogman operations in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is displaying a small model of the vehicle, named SDV-01, at the World Defence Show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Running from Sunday to Thursday, the show features a substantial Chinese presence, including its naval weapons, which in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3343069/china-lifts-veil-secretive-underwater-combat-vehicle-saudi-arabia-defence-show?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3343069/china-lifts-veil-secretive-underwater-combat-vehicle-saudi-arabia-defence-show?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Feb 2026 10:00:32 +0000 Lawrence Chung Lawrence Chung Taiwan has conducted a series of shallow-water submerged tests of its indigenous submarine prototype over the past two weeks, marking a key step towards potential navy delivery as early as June. The Hai Kun, or Narwhal, is part of the island’s Indigenous Defence Submarine programme, a project widely seen as central to its efforts to boost asymmetric naval capabilities amid increasing military pressure from Beijing. Surface navigation tests began last year, with undersea trials and weapons... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3342948/will-taiwan-meet-submarine-delivery-deadline-unlock-defence-budget-hai-kun-tests?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3342948/will-taiwan-meet-submarine-delivery-deadline-unlock-defence-budget-hai-kun-tests?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Feb 2026 02:00:13 +0000 Liu Zhen Liu Zhen When a full-scale model of the world’s first independent submarine hunter drone was unveiled at the Dubai Airshow last month, it offered a glimpse of the latest in a series of advances in China’s development of a modern integrated anti-submarine system. The Wing Loong-X export variant unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has anti-submarine capabilities that are reportedly superior in some respects to the United States Navy’s Boeing P-8 Poseidon and other manned aircraft. The full-scale model drone’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3335086/chinas-rapid-progress-anti-submarine-drones-adding-concerns-japan-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3335086/chinas-rapid-progress-anti-submarine-drones-adding-concerns-japan-us?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Dec 2025 15:00:10 +0000 Mia Nurmamat Mia Nurmamat In 2003, a decade after the humiliation of the Yinhe incident – when a Chinese container ship was left stranded for weeks after the United States jammed its Global Positioning System (GPS) – Beijing set its sights on bypassing the American satellite network. At first, it turned to the European Union, pledging €230 million (then US$260 million) to join the Galileo project, an independent satellite navigation system designed to reduce Europe’s reliance on GPS. But the partnership did not last.... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3332333/china-has-big-ambitions-space-and-arctic-should-west-be-worried?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3332333/china-has-big-ambitions-space-and-arctic-should-west-be-worried?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Nov 2025 22:00:14 +0000 Seong Hyeon Choi Seong Hyeon Choi China now has the largest naval fleet in the world, and its growing numbers of nuclear-powered submarines are an integral part of its efforts to project power beyond its coastal waters. But the view from Beijing is growing more complex as a handful of US allies in the Pacific also ramp up deployment of nuclear-powered subs. South Korea inched closer to attaining the technology on October 30 when US President Donald Trump said he had given the country approval to build a nuclear-powered... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3331891/us-pacific-allies-eye-nuclear-submarines-should-china-be-concerned?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3331891/us-pacific-allies-eye-nuclear-submarines-should-china-be-concerned?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Nov 2025 22:00:24 +0000 Meredith Chen Meredith Chen Russian and Chinese submarines have conducted their first joint patrol in the Pacific, the latest in a series of efforts to expand military cooperation between the two countries. The Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet said on Wednesday that the patrol began in early August after five days of joint naval exercises in the Sea of Japan – also known as the East Sea – from August 1. “The diesel-electric submarine Volkhov of the Pacific Fleet and a submarine of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy took... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3323527/russian-and-chinese-submarines-join-forces-pacific-patrol-first?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3323527/russian-and-chinese-submarines-join-forces-pacific-patrol-first?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:00:08 +0000 Huang Xuhua, the chief designer of China’s first generation of nuclear submarines, died in Wuhan in the central province of Hubei on Thursday. He was 98. Huang’s funeral committee said on Friday that the engineer had been receiving medical treatment but did not specify the nature of his illness. Huang began working on the top secret “09 Project” in 1958 to develop China’s first nuclear submarine and rose to become one of its leading scientists. Cut off from Western and Soviet technology, the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3297905/huang-xuhua-chief-designer-chinas-first-nuclear-submarine-dies-aged-98?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3297905/huang-xuhua-chief-designer-chinas-first-nuclear-submarine-dies-aged-98?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Feb 2025 09:51:06 +0000 Stephen Chen Stephen Chen For US submarines operating in waters near China, the era of absolute stealth may be ending – one magnetic ripple at a time. Researchers with Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xian claim to have developed a groundbreaking method to detect even the quietest underwater vessels by harnessing the magnetic fields generated by their wakes – a discovery that could reshape naval warfare. Led by associate professor Wang Honglei, the team modelled the Kelvin wake, a V-shaped surface... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3297575/china-can-detect-us-seawolf-class-submarine-magnetic-wake-tracking-study?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3297575/china-can-detect-us-seawolf-class-submarine-magnetic-wake-tracking-study?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Feb 2025 06:00:16 +0000 Stephen Chen Stephen Chen The US military is reportedly considering a tactic that involves deploying a submarine near the Chinese coast to release a large number of drones from under the water. These drones would then form a swarm in the air and launch surprise attacks on the People’s Liberation Army fleet during any potential attempt to land in Taiwan, thereby reducing the need for US ships to get too close to the combat zone and risk being hit. But there’s a twist: China has already turned this idea into reality, and... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3294993/chinas-submarine-launched-drones-can-do-more-us-military-thinks-study?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3294993/chinas-submarine-launched-drones-can-do-more-us-military-thinks-study?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Jan 2025 07:00:15 +0000 The US must prepare for a potential conflict with China by raising its defence spending to more than 3 per cent of GDP, a bipartisan group of lawmakers heard on Wednesday. The recommendation came during an interactive exercise for members of the House select committee on China, based on a scenario predicted for 2026, and hosted by Washington-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). US officials have frequently cited 2027 as a critical point for when they expect... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3287467/china-war-scenario-calls-us-boost-defence-spending-more-3-gdp?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3287467/china-war-scenario-calls-us-boost-defence-spending-more-3-gdp?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Nov 2024 02:59:54 +0000 Satellite imagery showed that China’s newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank alongside a pier while under construction, a senior US defence official said on Thursday. China’s first Zhou-class submarine sank likely between May and June, when satellite images from Planet Labs from June appear to show cranes at the Wuchang shipyard, where the submarine would have been docked. The images showed cranes that would be necessary to lift it off the bottom of the river, said the official, who spoke... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3280121/new-chinese-nuclear-attack-submarine-sank-during-construction-us-defence-official-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3280121/new-chinese-nuclear-attack-submarine-sank-during-construction-us-defence-official-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Sep 2024 21:52:27 +0000 Stephen Chen Stephen Chen A new submarine detection technology that can track even the quietest of subs has shown potential during testing in the South China Sea, its developers say. Scientists from Shanghai Jiao Tong University said their detector – about the size of a pickup truck – was tested on a deep ocean seabed. It was able to capture faint electromagnetic waves generated by a rotating propeller nearly 20km (12 miles) away. By analysing these low-frequency signals, the scientists said they could potentially... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3279095/new-submarine-detector-shows-tremendous-potential-south-china-sea-tests?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3279095/new-submarine-detector-shows-tremendous-potential-south-china-sea-tests?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Sep 2024 22:00:16 +0000 Stephen Chen Stephen Chen A milestone for underwater communication has been achieved following testing of new technology that features a powerful method of data encoding, according to scientists involved in the project. The 92150 unit of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in collaboration with Xiamen University recently conducted tests on the new underwater data transmission technology at an undisclosed location in the South China Sea, with a water depth of 3,000 metres (9,842 feet), far from the Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3275418/huaweis-polar-code-beats-nato-protocol-south-china-sea-submarine-communication-test?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3275418/huaweis-polar-code-beats-nato-protocol-south-china-sea-submarine-communication-test?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Aug 2024 04:00:18 +0000 A covert torpedo project could allow China’s conventional submarines to paralyse enemy aircraft carriers, according to a Chinese military publication. The assessment is based on a video of a Type 039B submarine sinking a target ship with a Yu-10 torpedo in a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercise aired by state broadcaster CCTV on June 19. In a rare display of Chinese submarine attack capabilities, the target ship – likely a retired Type 074 amphibious landing vessel – was hit by the unnamed... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3272974/power-chinas-secret-yu-10-torpedo-hailed-video-marks-70-years-submarine-force?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3272974/power-chinas-secret-yu-10-torpedo-hailed-video-marks-70-years-submarine-force?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Aug 2024 14:00:12 +0000 Chinese submarines armed with lasers could take out SpaceX’s Starlink satellites if China’s security was at risk, according to a study by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) scientists. In the study, a submarine with a megawatt-class, solid-state, laser weapon installed in its midsection could stay submerged while it raised a retractable, “optoelectronic mast” to fire at satellites, before diving back down to depth. This type of laser attack submarine could be mass-produced in the future and deployed... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3270890/china-could-attack-starlink-satellites-submarine-laser-weapon-naval-study?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3270890/china-could-attack-starlink-satellites-submarine-laser-weapon-naval-study?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jul 2024 00:00:15 +0000 Taiwan said it “closely monitored” the passage of a PLA Navy nuclear-powered submarine in the sensitive Taiwan Strait after fishermen spotted it surfacing abruptly early on Tuesday. The submarine was seen at about 5am just west of the median line that separates the island and the mainland, about 46km (25 nautical miles) from Taiwan-controlled Quemoy Island, also known as Kinmen, according to news reports. The sighting was about 200km (120 miles) from Taiwan’s west coast. Soon after, another PLA... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3267228/why-did-chinese-nuclear-powered-submarine-suddenly-surface-taiwan-strait?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3267228/why-did-chinese-nuclear-powered-submarine-suddenly-surface-taiwan-strait?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:00:08 +0000 Scientists developing China’s next-generation nuclear submarine technology say they have found a way to significantly improve the efficiency of the laser propellers that could one day drive the underwater vessels. The researchers said the new technology can produce nearly 70,000 newtons of thrust – almost the force of a commercial jet engine – using 2 megawatts of laser power emitted through the submarine’s coating of optical fibres, each thinner than a human hair – an efficiency previously... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3259875/chinese-scientists-close-laser-propulsion-superfast-silent-submarines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3259875/chinese-scientists-close-laser-propulsion-superfast-silent-submarines?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Apr 2024 08:00:18 +0000