According to recent reports, commercial satellite imagery detected one and possibly two Type 093 nuclear-powered attack submarines docked at a Chinese navy base in the South China Sea. In 2008, a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine was detected at the same location, but is not assessed to be based there. China is building and basing submarines to enforce its maritime claims in the East and South China Seas. Experts rate the technology in the Type 093 as a generation or more behind the US, but it is better than anything in the navies of the Southeast Asian states that dispute China’s sea claims.

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