Submarine Article in the Current Issue of Naval War College Review

The Winter 2008 issue of Naval War College Review has an excellent article about the People's Republic of China and the Submarine Service. Entitled Chinese Evaluations of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force, it is authored by founding director and three research faculty at the Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute.

According to the authors, there are at least five publications devoted to naval warfare in the PRC. In addition, there are dozens of technical journals. The authors examined over 1,000 articles from these publications and analyzed over 150 articles.

The article is divided into five main sections:

• Chinese reaction to current issues facing the U.S. Submarine Service
  
  
• Chinese evaluations of specific American submarine capabilities, including the conversion of four submarines to SSGN (Guided Missile Submarine) configuration



• Critical historical issues, including Chinese perception of U.S. Submarine operations during the Cold War



• How Chinese analysts believe their ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) force would match up against American submarines



• Chinese perceptions of the future of the American submarine service.

Finally, the authors close with a short summary, saying "Chinese strategists are keenly interested in the U.S. Navy's submarine force...There is clear evidence that Chinese naval analysts have enormous respect for U.S. submarines, submariners, and their weapons."

The full issue is available as an Adobe PDF at the Naval War College's Website. Be forewarned. The file is a 24.7MB download and may take a while to download.