China is developing large Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (aka Robo subs)

a reply to: LABTECH767

The Russians and us are both doing this as well... Hell the Russians are making doomsday nuclear powered nuclear armed robosubs for the love of Pete!

a reply to: Kandinsky



The Russian equivalent is called Poseidon these days. Originally, it was called Status-6.

The American and Chinese UUVs are meant to be used in conventional war. The Russian UUV was not originally intended as such. It was a long range nuclear torpedo, essentially. It was meant to swim into a harbor and detonate. Think underwater cruise missile rather than standard UUV. It was one of the new weapons designed to evade the American missile defense system. It is one of several (including the insane storm kestrel, russia's equivalent of project pluto).

The Russians are now stating they will use Poseidon/Status-6 for other purposes as well as nuking harbors.

a reply to: atsgrounded

Not exactly on the topic at hand, but I find it interesting the Pine Gap facility in central Australia isn't on that map. Maybe not counted because its a joint run facility...

a reply to: atsgrounded

I have to wonder about some of those bases listed on the map: more than one is in China. Another is in Moscow.

a reply to: anzha

For whoever doesn't know, Russian public strategy is what they call 'de-escalation' and it's a strong approach. It promises to fight back whilst never pre-emptively striking a rival or enemy. PR-wise it puts Russia in a more favourable light than the US and its allies who see pre-emptive strikes as reasonable. Foreign policy-wise it created indecision when they took over Crimea and parts of the Ukraine. There were no pre-emptive strikes against Ukraine or Crimea, it was all done with sketchy ballots and no-flag soldiers.

The Russian UUV was not originally intended as such. It was a long range nuclear torpedo, essentially. It was meant to swim into a harbor and detonate. Think underwater cruise missile rather than standard UUV. It was one of the new weapons designed to evade the American missile defense system.

That Poseidon sure packs a deterrent punch! Knowing something like that could be right off the coast tempers one's sense of potency, right? It contributes to the status quo and delicate balance of the arguable return of the Cold War.

I've often wondered about the strength of the Russian submarine fleet and what ours are doing. Each year (especially near Christmas), we have reports of Russian subs off the coasts of Sweden and Scotland. They call it 'stress testing' and the aircraft incursions are probably more well known. What I'm curious about is what our sub fleet is doing. Are we also roaming into Russian waters? It seems very obvious that this will be the case, but it's not discussed in the media. I'm not prone to believing my own side is innocent and the others are venal, evil and an existential threat...

Further afield, and back on topic, I was just reading about the US saying China had more subs than the USA in 2015. Apparently they weren't carrying nuclear warheads, but a lot changes in three years and who knows?

a reply to: roguetechie

Yep piracy, stolen information and design
Everyone does it
The US are no different

They have advanced significantly

originally posted by: Raggedyman
Yep piracy, stolen information and design
Everyone does it
The US are no different

Don't understate the level of Chinese activities to steal through state-sponsored means, a huge amount of commercial knowledge and the out-of-control culture of copyright theft and abuse.

If others do it, no-one does it to the scale of China. The theft of IP and commercial secrets is part of the Chinese business and military model.

a reply to: paraphi

Thankyou I am aware of that
That wasn't what I was discussing
The Chinese share their technology, they don't sit on it or hide it, that's my point

I was not discussing piracy, yes they are fantastic at it, it's not my point

originally posted by: Raggedyman
The Chinese share their technology, they don't sit on it or hide it, that's my point

And pray tell; what natively developed technology have the Chinese shared with the rest of the world?

a reply to: paraphi

None, they share internally, that's my whole point
Has nothing to do with what you are expressing, might be the way I explained myself

This thing looks of the right size to be actually a IRBM carrier ... doesn't it ?
Stay parked close to a coast and wait for orders. Then a underwater rocket pre-stage pushes the missile out of the water surface, and the first stage of the IRBM ignites ... an underwater rocket stage, just like the one for skval torpedoes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_7hWSv689Q