Saifullah Sani
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China's Ministry of National Defense (MND) has confirmed reports that a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) submarine visited the Sri Lankan capital Colombo in early September: the first overt overseas port call by a Chinese submarine.
A MND spokesman stated that the submarine was en route to conduct counter piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. He added that the visit to Sri Lanka was a routine logistics stop, as practiced by other international navies operating far from base ports.
The submarine is reported to be a Type 039 (Song)-class diesel-electric boat with pennant number 329, which IHS Jane's Fighting Ships indicates was commissioned in 2006. PLAN watchers suggest it is operated by the 32nd Submarine Flotilla based at the Yulin-Sanya submarine base on Hainan Island. The submarine is being accompanied by Type 925-class submarine support tender Changxingdao (861).
The deployment will be lengthy - the distance from Hainan to the Gulf of Aden is around 5,500 n miles, so the outward and return transits are likely to take more than three weeks.
While other navies have employed submarines for intelligence gathering and reconnaissance on the counter-piracy operations - the first reported deployment was by the Dutch Walrus-class SSK HNLMS Zeeleeuw in 2010 - this is China's first deployment of a submarine since it began counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden in early 2009.
That deployment involved the Type 052B destroyer Wuhan , Type 052C destroyer Haikou , and a Fuchi-class underway replenishment ship, which left the South Sea Fleet port near Sanya and arrived in the Gulf of Aden in early January 2009.
Since then, similarly sized PLAN task forces have been rotated in on a regular four-monthly basis. The 17th escort task force of the PLAN is currently under way and features Type 052C destroyer Changchun and Type 054A frigate Changzhou (549), which visited the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on 20 September 2014 in a sign of deepening naval relations between the two countries.
COMMENT
Chinese ships assigned to the anti-piracy mission in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) have visited several ports to allow their crews to rest and to take on supplies, including in Djibouti, Oman, and Yemen. It emerged in December 2011 that China was also considering using facilities on the island of Mahe, Seychelles, for resupply and recuperation.
While reaction to the visit in India has been muted, it will not have gone unnoticed, particularly as it took place at the same time the armies of India and China were confronting each other over the disputed Himalayan border.
China has long denied ambitions to establish overseas naval bases - especially in the IOR - but the port call in Colombo highlights China's need for logistics facilities for ships and submarines deployed along its sea lines of communications. The fact that the facilities used were at one of two ports developed by China in Sri Lanka, as it has also done in Pakistan and Myanmar, is likely to reinvigorate the debate about Chinese construction of maritime infrastructure in the IOR.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited Sri Lanka shortly after the submarine port call, is promoting the establishment of a Maritime Silk Route, with China taking a lead in the development of port facilities. Some will regard this as a benign approach to developing international trade; others will ascribe more far-reaching strategic motives.
China sends first submarine to take part in Indian Ocean counter-piracy ops - IHS Jane's 360
A MND spokesman stated that the submarine was en route to conduct counter piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. He added that the visit to Sri Lanka was a routine logistics stop, as practiced by other international navies operating far from base ports.
The submarine is reported to be a Type 039 (Song)-class diesel-electric boat with pennant number 329, which IHS Jane's Fighting Ships indicates was commissioned in 2006. PLAN watchers suggest it is operated by the 32nd Submarine Flotilla based at the Yulin-Sanya submarine base on Hainan Island. The submarine is being accompanied by Type 925-class submarine support tender Changxingdao (861).
The deployment will be lengthy - the distance from Hainan to the Gulf of Aden is around 5,500 n miles, so the outward and return transits are likely to take more than three weeks.
While other navies have employed submarines for intelligence gathering and reconnaissance on the counter-piracy operations - the first reported deployment was by the Dutch Walrus-class SSK HNLMS Zeeleeuw in 2010 - this is China's first deployment of a submarine since it began counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden in early 2009.
That deployment involved the Type 052B destroyer Wuhan , Type 052C destroyer Haikou , and a Fuchi-class underway replenishment ship, which left the South Sea Fleet port near Sanya and arrived in the Gulf of Aden in early January 2009.
Since then, similarly sized PLAN task forces have been rotated in on a regular four-monthly basis. The 17th escort task force of the PLAN is currently under way and features Type 052C destroyer Changchun and Type 054A frigate Changzhou (549), which visited the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on 20 September 2014 in a sign of deepening naval relations between the two countries.
COMMENT
Chinese ships assigned to the anti-piracy mission in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) have visited several ports to allow their crews to rest and to take on supplies, including in Djibouti, Oman, and Yemen. It emerged in December 2011 that China was also considering using facilities on the island of Mahe, Seychelles, for resupply and recuperation.
While reaction to the visit in India has been muted, it will not have gone unnoticed, particularly as it took place at the same time the armies of India and China were confronting each other over the disputed Himalayan border.
China has long denied ambitions to establish overseas naval bases - especially in the IOR - but the port call in Colombo highlights China's need for logistics facilities for ships and submarines deployed along its sea lines of communications. The fact that the facilities used were at one of two ports developed by China in Sri Lanka, as it has also done in Pakistan and Myanmar, is likely to reinvigorate the debate about Chinese construction of maritime infrastructure in the IOR.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited Sri Lanka shortly after the submarine port call, is promoting the establishment of a Maritime Silk Route, with China taking a lead in the development of port facilities. Some will regard this as a benign approach to developing international trade; others will ascribe more far-reaching strategic motives.
China sends first submarine to take part in Indian Ocean counter-piracy ops - IHS Jane's 360
