Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed US officials, reported that China’s new nuclear attack submarine sank in a shipyard in the Wuhan region in late May or early June 2024.
Tom Shugart, a senior researcher at the Center for Analytics on the New American Security (CNAB), noticed strange activity of four crane barges at the Chinese Wuchang shipyard where submarines and other military vessels are housed, after reviewing satellite images from the company Planet Labs. was built.
It was initially believed that the Yuan-class Type 039A diesel-electric submarine had sunk. But Wall Street Journal sources now indicate that it is the first submarine of a new class of Chinese nuclear attack submarines known as the Zhou, and has a distinctive X-shaped stern. American officials did not provide details about the accident.