Giant Panda Not: China's SSBNs & 4000 NM nuke missiles (this year)

Referring to China's SSBNs, Admiral Samuel Locklear, US Pacific Commander, indicated that JIN-class subs will soon be armed with  new the new JL-2 ballistic missiles (estimated range: 4,000 nautical miles [7,500 km]).

"This will give China its first credible sea-based nuclear deterrent, probably before the end of 2014 [emphasis mine]," Locklear told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"I think they'll have in the next decade or so a fairly well modernized force of probably 60 to 70 submarines which is a lot of submarines for a regional power," he said.

Locklear said Beijing is investing in new weapons and naval power in part "to deny US access to the Western Pacific during a time of crisis or conflict and to provide the means by which China can bolster its broad maritime claims in the region."  read more Business Insider - Military & Defense

Notes  (AFP): 
China now has five nuclear attack submarines, four nuclear ballistic missile submarines, and 53 diesel attack submarines, according to Jess Karotkin of  ONI.

Between 1995 and 2012, Beijing produced 2.9 submarines a year, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Answers: Christmas 2013 Q.O.T.W.

The background information and photos presented when the Questions of the Week (Q.O.T.W.) answered below were originally posted may be found here:  Saturday, December 21, 2013.

Answers
1.   What kind of tree was this?  ANS: The tree was a Sequoia (Redwood). 

2.  When and where was this tree planted?  ANS: The tree was planted 21 February 1956, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard  in Vallejo, California.  The sapling grew to become the Shipyard's Christmas tree from the 1980s until the yard closed in 1996.

3.  How many admirals were involved in the planting and who were those admirals and the lone Captain?  ANS: Three admirals and one captain.  The tree-planting detail (photo here) consisted of (RADM Martin J. Lawrence, USN (Shipyard Commander), RADM John R. Redman, USN (Commandant 12th ND), RADM F.I. Entwistle, USN (Mare Island Base Commander), and Capt, R.A. Davidson (Public Works Officer Mare Island).

 

4.  The tree planting had something to do with a nuclear sub (shown above); the name of this sub and what the tree commemorated were what?  ANS: The tree planting commemorated the keel laying of USS Sargo (SSN-583), the first nuclear sub ever built by M.I.N.S.Y.

H A P P Y    N E W   Y E A R  !

Submarines are always silent and strange.