In 2004, Western intelligence noticed that a new type of diesel-electric submarine was under construction at Wuhan Shipyard in central China. The submarine, whose official designation remains unknown, appears to be a completely new design with no evident inheritance from previous Chinese indigenous submarines. The design of the submarine appears to be under certain influence by the Russian Kilo class, and the submarine is though to be comparable to the Russian-made submarine in general performance.
The first-of-class was launched on 31 May 2004, followed by a second boat in December 2004. The submarine was codenamed by the U.S. intelligence as Yuan class. Judged from the experience of the PLA Navy’s previous shipbuilding programme, it is likely that these two boats are to be used for trial of evaluation before the design is finalised and mass production started. It is not know if more hulls will be built in the future.
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