OPINION | China's deep difficulty: nuclear-powered submarine and ASW inferiority

Now and foreseeably, the United States dominates undersea submarine warfare. No other country gets near to America in the quietness, performance, and reliability of submarines on military operations.

However, it has become common to assert in some quarters in the West that China is getting ready to overtake the US in such areas as quietening of submarines and their reliability when on potentially dangerous, distant operations. That is not a view with which we agree.

Distant operations in potential enemy territory are the most demanding for China’s strategic nuclear ballistic-missile-firing submarines (SSBNs) and tactical nuclear submarines (SSNs).

Their capabilities do seem to be improving, but the pace of development for China’s SSBNs and their ballistic missiles has been excruciatingly slow by Western standards. Still, the US Department of Defense describes China’s latest SSBN as its "first credible sea-based nuclear deterrent."

China now has six SSBNs and six SSNs (as well as 48 diesel-electric tactical submarines). The latest Chinese SSBN class, the Type 094, began nuclear deterrence patrols in December 2015. But the country needs three or four SSBNs to be sure of always having at least one at sea.

Furthermore, SSBNs are expensive to build and maintain, as well as being highly demanding on crew training.