India Today has brought out an article on Akula Lease by Sandeep Unnithan , posting the salient point of the write up

1 ) The Akula 2 class SSN ( 12000 Tons submerged displacement ) will be named INS Chakra and will be commisioned in the IN on June 15th , 2008

2 ) The submarine was part of a $650 million lease agreement signed during NDA regiem , Initial plan was to lease 2 Akula later reduced to 1

3 ) Its principle armament will be a new greater than 1000 Km range cruise missile.

4 ) The graphics by IT also shows VLS launched Brahmos forward of sail

5 ) Per original plans it was supposed to be commisioned by August 15th this year but got delayed by 10 months

6 ) Nearly 300 crews or 3 Sets of crews for the Submarine has already been trained

7 ) Compared to previous chakra lease way back in late 80’s the present lease will differ in that the Reactor control and missile launch area will be manned by Indians

8 ) The ATV is also nearing its end of its construction it will join the navy in 2009 and will be armed with a 5000 Km range 3 stage agni variant

9 ) The ATV is a 5000 Tons modfied charlie 2 design SSBN , and will be launched for sea trial next year

10 ) The Chakra will also train future ATV crews

huh? when did ATV become a SSBN? Is there any existing SSBN that’s remotely close to 5000 tonnes? When did they suddenly get a 5000 km submarine launched version of Agnii>?

According to a text posted in the CDF, Yuan is officially 041.

If there is a new diesel sub class, it better be powered by MTU 16V 396 diesel engines, for apparently China ordered a lot of them in 2006 and 2007. In my opinion, Yuan class has entered mass production.

you mean this one?

声明：本文为《现代兵器》杂志供《新浪军事》独家稿件。未经许可，请勿转载。

　　杜东冬 编译

　　这是大陆继039“宋”级柴电潜艇后自行建造的第一种柴电攻击潜艇，与“宋”级一样由武汉造船厂建造，首艇于2004年5月31日下水，第二艘则于同年12月下水，代号为041型。

　　“元”级的整体造型设计与“宋”级有很大的不同，绝对是全新的设计。例如，“宋”级潜艇仍使用与上一代苏制R级、“明”级柴电潜艇相仿的鲸型舰体， “元”级则采用更先进的水滴型设计，外观浑圆饱满，艇首较为粗大平缓。由于俄罗斯坚决否认曾协助该艇设计工作，故“元”级应该是大陆自行设计的产物。

　　在“元”级的艇首上缘，按照上二下四的配置方案，装有6具鱼雷发射管，将艇首下半部分空了出来，用来安装大型的主被动声呐系统，颇似俄制“基洛”级潜艇，比“宋”级那种鱼雷管占满艇首大部分空间的设计要好得多。由此可以估计，“元”级的水下侦测能力特别是被动听音能力，比起“宋”级将有很大进步。除了改进声呐系统外，“元”级也被西方推测使用光电侦测桅杆，装备可能包括CCD摄影机、红外热成像仪、激光测距仪等，舰上所有声呐、光电侦测、雷达、电子战和武器系统可能都连结到数字化整合式战斗系统中。武器方面，可能使用俄罗斯最新型的TEST一71MKE线导鱼雷或53—65KE鱼雷等等，其鱼雷管应该也能发射水雷、反舰导弹等武器，例如大陆C一801潜射型、俄制“俱乐部”反舰导弹等。

　　“元”级潜艇的诸元现被推定如下：长77.6 米，宽8_4米，吃水5.5米，水面排水量1900～2000吨，水下排水量2500～2600 吨。从图片观察，“元”级的艇身敷设了消音瓦，对于降噪有很大的帮助，但艇体两侧还是各有一长排开口，水流过时容易产生较大的噪音，同欧、美、俄、日最新一代潜艇尽可能减少开口数目以使舰体表面平滑的作法相比稍有不如。“元”级采用十字形尾舵，前水平翼位于帆罩两侧，舵面设计均与“宋”级类似，推进器为一具高曲度七叶螺旋桨。此外，盛传“元”级配备能大幅水下延长潜航时间的不依靠空气推进AIP系统，目前尚无法证实。

　　“元”级的出现，显示大陆在潜艇制造技术上又有了长足进步，搭配购自俄国的新型“基洛”柴电潜艇乃至于研发中的093、094核能潜艇，未来大陆潜艇部队绝非以往传统老旧潜艇组合的噪音大杂烩，对任何对手的反潜能力都将造成更大的考验。 文章内容仅供参考，并不代表本刊同意或证实其观点。

doesn’t look like an official source to me, the stuff on torpedo, anti-ship missile used were not really correct and it already came out that it uses AIP system.

yeah, was confusing……….people use two designations interchangeably

So it is:

Original “Song” – 039
Modified “Song”, One in mass production – 039G?
Yuan – 039A?

I guess so, Yuan is still considered as a Song by PLAN from what I read. I think there will be a new diesel SSK coming in a year or two that will take up 041, but it won’t be Yuan.

this is interesting.

This is from somewhere on Chinese forum on a someone that works on developing missiles for 2nd artillery.

何玉彬，男，1964年5月出生，1982年9月入伍，1986年10月入党，博士，现任第二炮兵装备部科研部预研办主任。该同志针对二炮武器装备预研工作领域新、难度大、不定因素多、前瞻性强等特点，以强烈的事业心和责任感，开拓创新，锐意进取，出色完成多项关键技术攻关任务，受到军委、总部和二炮首长的表扬与肯定。先后荣立二等功、一等功各一次，被评为首届二炮 “十大砺剑尖兵”，全军“参谋队伍”重大典型，2005年被中组部中宣部确定为“时代先锋”典型人物。

何玉彬同志着眼二炮装备体系建设和长远发展，着眼军事斗争准备急需，组织完成了多个系列在役在研装备改进项目论证，先后组织召开各类研讨会和评审会百余次，完成了“十五”和“十一五”二炮预研规划的论证，为开展关键技术攻关奠定了重要基础。

围绕二炮武器装备预研，何玉彬同志积极组织协调，整合国家资源，较好地处理了总体与分系统的关系，调动了军方、总体及配套单位的积极性，保证了关键技术按时取得突破和演示验证的顺利开展，为开展型号研制奠定了坚实基础。着眼武器装备建设“短板、瓶颈”问题，完成了某型号系列武器提高精度、快速发射和常规战斗部预研攻关，确保了该型号顺利研制，为实现打击点目标、地下目标和移动目标奠定了重要基础。

何玉彬同志积极探索新时期预研工作的特点规律，构建了机关、研究院、工业部门“三位一体”预研论证机制，完成了预研管理办法等9项法规编制。组织加强了预研项目管理与跟踪研究，初步实现了二炮预研信息和资源共享，提高了综合论证水平。引入竞争机制，开创了军方抓总的预研管理模式，在全军预研史上开创了一年完成技术攻关、10个月完成大型演示验证的先例。

claims to be official, although I have yet to see the original source on this. But it seems to be accepted by several big shrimps that looked at this. The most important part is where they mentionned developing a particular missile with high accuracy to achieve the goal of hitting fix target, underground target and moving target. Suggesting aircraft carrier.

Japan has apologised on multiple occasions, sure didn’t help much. A Japanese purchase of carriers would indicate a more assertive Japan and a rival to China’s intentions of primacy in Asia – something China won’t tolerate. Whether Japan has apologised or not is irrelevant.

Martin Luther said “faith without actions is no faith at all”. So, we Chinese people believe that apologies without actions is no apology at all.

apologies need to be backed up by action, saying you are sorry with your mouth means nothing when you try to change the accountability of it in your history book. I’m so tired of reading defenders of Japanese government using Chnese gov’t and verbal apologies as excuses for what happened in WWII. If Japan really apologizes the way that Germany apologized for holocaust, it would make a huge difference to the victims and their family. But of course, given the currently political climate, that’s not likely to happen.

I though the incident was never clarified by USN… Do you have any inside source you’d like to share?

I do, but i’m not saying anything.

I would’nt say repeatedly as PLAN rarely confronts anyone. Intrusion by submarine actually happens more often than people think. The only thing special in this case is that Japan decided to make it PR promotion.

according to gary on DT, PLAN subs have been doing this quite often in recent times.

Quite likely but given that only 3 USN subs are based in the pacific and only recently. I wouldn’t say that a US SSN tails the 093 every time.

hmmm… we do know there is a 095 project but where is this urgency you are trying to infer? Do you have some inside source that we don’t know about?

well, considering that the reactor vessel needs to be completed before 2010, I would say that’s quite urgent.

I would suggest we should put a suspicious view on the so called 110 db noise level of PLAN’s type 093. I doubt PLAN will ever reveal such data to outside world in the 1st place. Only recently we see the declassified images of the 093 SSN built many years ago. How come you are able to know the numbers of such a highly classified Nuclear Submarine? One thing we may notice is the 093 SSN, doesn’t like its precedent the 091 SSN, has so far not been caught any attention from western snifters, despite there are the world most intensified Sonar network in the seas surrounding China for the same many years. In 2001, a US EP-3 was sent to Hainan to recon the sea trail of 093 SSN, which later crashed with the PLANAF’s J-8. No news from west is good news, at least we don’t hear the old sayings like that the 091 SSN can be heard in Hawaii when it sailed in Hainan.

There is no proof that 093 SSN hasn’t been tracked by a USN SSN. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been to check for the acoustic signatures.

You mean the forum/site the images originated from?

how can you be so sure that picture is ASBM?