The United States calls such submarines SSBN: SS for Ship Submersible, B for Ballistic missile capable, and N for Nuclear power.

A commercial satellite in Earth orbit, which was commissioned by Google to take pictures, took the photograph of the then-secret sub while it was moored in Xiaopingdao Submarine Base near the city of Dalian.

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) at the Huludao Shipyard in Huludao, Lioning Province, built the Type 094 submarine. It supposedly took five years to construct the second-generation nuclear submarine—from 1999 to 2004. Some of the technology came from Russia. Sea-worthiness tests were conducted in 2004 and, then, later tests for the readiness of its long-range nuclear missile. Regularly scheduled tours of duty of the submarine and its crew are supposedly being planned to start in the year 2010.

The PLAN is the naval branch of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)—that is, the military partof the People’s Republic of China.

The SSBN submarine carries up to sixteen JL-2 ICBMs, each with a range of about 8,000 kilometers. The submarine is 133 meters (436 feet, or about 1.5 football fields) in length.

According to unofficial estimates from the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, China is planning five more such submarines.

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