NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

The People’s Liberation Army navy has built three new cruise missile-firing nuclear submarines in what U.S. defense officials say is a significant advance in its attack submarine program. The new Shang III attack submarines are in the water undergoing sea trials and certification, according to defense officials familiar with reports on the submarines.

Operational deployment of the Shang III submarines is expected within the next year or two, the officials said, speaking on background.

“This is especially important as these are the first cruise missile submarines in the Chinese inventory,” one official told The Washington Times.

The new Shang III SSGNs will join six other currently deployed nuclear attack submarines in the class that the PLA calls Type-093. They are considered China’s most potent attack submarines and likely are being used to protect nuclear missile submarines.

The officials said the Shang III represents the biggest change in the PLA’s undersea warfare capabilities.

The Pentagon’s most recent report on Chinese military power, made public in October 2023, stated that two Shang III submarines were launched between May 2022 and January 2023 and that three submarines of the class could be operational by next year.

The third new Shang III is expected to be outlined in the latest China military power report due out next month.

“This new Shang-class variant will enhance the PLAN’s anti-surface warfare capability and could provide a clandestine land-attack option if equipped with land-attack cruise missiles (LACM),” the 2023 report said.

The U.S. defense officials also discussed the recent mishap that occurred to another new class of submarines, a hybrid nuclear-conventional submarine called the Zhou-class. That new submarine was spotted in satellite photos partially submerged on a river near its production facility in Wuhan, China.

The Zhou submarine was recovered after what the officials described as “operator error” — the result of leaving open a hatch that flooded the vessel. The submarine is equipped with a small nuclear reactor for electric power in addition to diesel engines.

“They goofed,” the official said, adding that the mishap was not the result of a systemic problem in PLA submarine building.

Unlike China’s other major weapons systems, the number of Chinese submarines over the last 10 to 12 years have not significantly increased.

Instead, new and more lethal submarines are replacing older submarines on a “hull-for-hull basis,” the defense official said. For example, non-nuclear Song-class diesel attack submarines are being replaced with more advanced Yuan-class submarines, which use air-independent propulsion allowing for longer submerged time. The Yuan also has more weapons.

Submarine activity by the PLA navy has so far been contained mainly to the Pacific region lately. No submarines have deployed to the Indian Ocean since last year, the officials said. The close operations near China are emblematic of the PLA overall with submarines and warships mostly staying nearby coasts and not much farther out to sea.

The new Shang-class submarines were built by the China Shipbuilding Industry (CSIC) at its Bohai Shipyard in Huludao, Liaoning Province, China. Each submarine is 350 feet long and has a maximum speed of 30 knots. They will fire advanced wake-homing torpedoes, YJ-18 anti-ship cruise missiles, and possibly a naval variant of the CJ-10 land attack cruise missiles.

Tom Shugart, a former Navy submariner now with the Center for New American Security, said China’s land attack cruise missile-equipped submarines will add to the already potent strike threat facing U.S. bases and facilities in the Western Pacific.

“By having mobile platforms that can contribute to a multi-axis attack, they will complicate the task of defending places like Guam, and perhaps even out to Hawaii,” Mr. Shugart said.

McCaul demands accountability at Global Media office

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul on Wednesday criticized the leadership of the U.S. Agency for Global Media for what he said was a cover-up of an investigation into a Voice of America official who lied about her education credentials and abused her authority. The Texas Republican said top officials of USAGM should be held accountable.

“Senior leadership at USAGM damages agency morale and public trust when it pretends the recent investigative findings reached by its own personnel – after years of prodding by my committee – do not exist,” Mr. McCaul said in a statement.

USAGM Chief Executive Amanda Bennett should issue a public apology to the government whistleblowers whose complaints were falsely denied by agency leadership for years, he said.

“The bureaucracy at USAGM must be reformed so that vetting of foreign nationals and credentials is done thoroughly and comprehensively, as I’ve already called for,” Mr. McCaul said. “It should not take years of congressional engagement for the agency to acknowledge hiring and firing processes are not what they should be.”

The committee released a transcribed interview with Setareh Sieg, a VOA official, that was conducted after what the panel said was “more than six months of stonewalling by USAGM and Ms. Sieg.”

A committee report from June concluded that the agency was guilty of fostering what Mr. McCaul described as a “culture of corruption and mismanagement.”

The report outlined fabrications on Ms. Sieg’s resume, including the false claim she received an advanced degree from France’s Sorbonne. Ms. Sieg is currently director of program review at the Voice of America and formerly headed VOA’s Persian News Network.

She was fired during the Trump administration and brought back to VOA during the Biden administration.

The committee said USAGM failed to conduct a thorough investigation of Ms. Sieg’s false credentials and her abuse of authority at VOA, despite the panel’s request for a probe.

“The committee’s investigation showed Ms. Sieg allowed her preferred employees to collect excessive overtime pay, showed a pattern of favoritism, faced persistent complaints from subordinates due to her abrasive leadership style, and mishandled at least one major programming contract,” the committee said.

VOA leaders eventually filed a formal reprimand of Ms. Sieg, yet Ms. Bennett continues to ignore the findings of investigators and still defends the VOA official, the committee said.

“Despite the formal reprimand, Ms. Sieg refuses to accept the findings of USAGM, the committee, the French Embassy, and the Foreign Credential Services of America that she does not have a French doctorate, referring to the assessments as mere ‘opinions,’” the committee said.

DIA on Putin’s “Big Six” nukes

The Defense Intelligence Agency recently disclosed what it calls Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “Big Six” advanced nuclear weapons systems designed to defeat U.S. defenses.

They include the new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile; the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle; the Kinzhal hypersonic missile; the Skyfall nuclear-powered cruise missile; and the Poseidon nuclear-powered and -armed underwater vehicle.

A sixth system revealed by DIA is called the Peresvet, an anti-satellite laser first deployed with Russian troops in 2018.

DIA said the Skyfall cruise missile uses a nuclear-powered engine that gives it intercontinental range and an ability to fly for several days. The missile suffered a catastrophic failure in 2019, killing five scientists during a missile recovery operation.

The missile was successfully tested in 2023, and Mr. Putin hailed it as a final test.

The Sarmat, also known as the Satan 2, carries different types of nuclear warheads, including very large megaton warheads. The ICBM can hit any target in the world and was shown in a video simulation ranging over the South Pole in targeting the United States.

The Avangard is deployed with SS-19 ICBMs that DIA officials said is “designed to eliminate U.S. homeland ballistic missile defenses.”

The glide vehicle flies at around 62 miles in altitude, which DIA says is below the reach of ballistic missile defenses, before descending to targets at 20,500 miles per hours – faster than most missile defense interceptors.

The Kinzhal is an air-launched hypersonic ballistic missile capable of making in-flight maneuvers while flying at speeds of 7,600 miles per hour. A conventional version of Kinzhal, known by NATO as Kiljoy, has been used in Ukraine and reportedly has been shot down by U.S.-made Patriot anti-missile systems.

The Poseidon drone submarine is a high-speed weapon that carries what DIA says is a megaton-class warhead to destroy enemy ports.

“Testing was conducted in early 2021,” the report said. “The Poseidon likely can travel at high speeds underwater due to its nuclear propulsion.”