Russia points out the Achilles' heel of the Chinese Navy.

China is striving to develop anti-submarine technology, but Beijing still has a long way to go to catch up with Russia and the United States.

Is China testing new anti-submarine technology?

The Chinese military has always placed great importance on anti-submarine warfare. To date, the PLA's anti-submarine capabilities are considered one of the weakest links in its military potential. Therefore, the Chinese military places great importance on anti-submarine warfare.

This raises questions that need to be answered regarding security along China's coastal areas and vital sea lanes, and is also a major concern for Beijing's development of a strategic nuclear force at sea.

Hong Kong media recently reported that China intends to deploy a plan to detect submarines from space; however, Russian experts have rejected this claim.

The Hong Kong newspaper "South China Morning Post" reported that China may be using the cold atomic interferometer tested on the Tiangong 2 and Shenzhou 11 manned spacecraft to detect submarines from space.

Regarding this issue, Russian military expert Vasily Kashin stated that the technical principles of the cold atomic interferometer in Tiangong 2 and the new type of atomic clock equipped in Tiangong are the same.

Everyone knows that atomic interferometers can detect extremely subtle changes in the Earth's electromagnetic field. Theoretically, this technique could be used to detect moving objects underwater.

However, there is no indication or information suggesting that this type of atomic interferometer was equipped on Tiangong 2. This is understandable, given that Tiangong 2's operational lifespan is only two years, making the equipping of an atomic interferometer pointless.

China is still catching up with Russia and the US.

Kashin pointed out that the Chinese navy is undertaking new anti-submarine projects, such as the production of the Type 056 light anti-submarine frigate and the GX-6 (Gao Xin-6) fixed-wing anti-submarine patrol aircraft, which takes off from land-based airfields.

China's GX-6 anti-submarine patrol aircraft

More importantly, the country is also building a network of fixed seabed monitoring equipment.

The principle behind building this network is to deploy underwater acoustic sensors (hydrophones), similar to the US SOSUS submarine tracking system, with a deployment range covering the entire first island chain.

Like other countries, China has invested heavily in submarine detection technology, for example, in satellites. If atomic interferometers are real, then this is one of those investments.

However, it remains unclear how far Beijing has developed this technology. Is this technology related to its manned spacecraft program? Meanwhile, the West has used satellites for testing in this area, rather than spacecraft like China.

In addition, Beijing has also researched and developed other advanced techniques for underwater warfare, paying particular attention to the development of innovative new technologies, including unmanned submersible vehicles.

The ultimate goal of these efforts was to find a decisive solution to counter the vast number of nuclear submarines in the U.S. Navy.

If Beijing can solve the problem of combating submarines, at least within the first island chain, then China's "anti-submarine warfare" strategy will be elevated to a new level.

But it's difficult to predict when that will happen, as China is only just beginning to enter this field.

Therefore, experts believe that China still has a lot to learn in order to catch up with the integrated anti-submarine warfare techniques of the US and Russia.

According to Baodatviet