Pic : FAS
China has procured from Russia 12 Kilo class submarines and four 956E/EM
DDGs, or guided missile destroyers, since 1993. The first two
Vasayanka-class Kilo submarines were exported to China in 1993, and the
second two Kilo 636 submarines were delivered in 1996. The first two
956E DDGs were delivered in 1996 and 1999 respectively.
These battleships are now all due for overhaul or technical upgrading.
But there are differences between China and Russia as to how this is to be done. Simply, China does not wish to trust its naval equipment to Russian technical experts.
A senior authoritative source from the Russian military industry said that for submarines, maintenance
is more important that building the vessels themselves. Maintenance was
not a major topic of discussion when the submarines were purchased, he
said, but with the PLA Navy submarines due for overhaul, Russia and
China have been involved in long drawn-out discussions.
In fact, the discussions have been under way for four years, the source
said, adding that providing overhaul services was not necessarily
included in the permit to export submarines.
The production and maintenance of submarines and missile destroyers are
completely different industrial engineering processes, and the
shipyards that produce them may not have the capability to repair or
prolong the life of the vessels.
Kilo 636 PLA
Russia has several enterprises that have full sets of manuals, permits,
technologies and the proper facilities to maintain the 956E DDGs and
Kilo submarines, among which the Zvezdochka Factory is one of the top firms, which has successfully repaired four Kilo submarines for India and is working on a fifth one.
It is well known that the best practice to overhaul, prolong the life or upgrade a submarine
is to send it back to the country where it was originally built. So
far, all of the Indian Navy’s Kilo submarines have been overhauled and
upgraded in Russia.
Under the guidance of technical experts, Club-S cruise missiles were
also added to these submarines during their servicing. Meanwhile, the
Indian technical staff that was involved in the upgrading also received
training in the process.
Unlike the Indians, the Chinese did not want to send their submarines
back to Russia for maintenance, however. Instead, they insisted that
Russian technicians go to China to train maintenance staff and overhaul
or prolong the service life of the submarines. The goal was that the
Chinese would eventually be able to overhaul all their submarines
themselves.
Impatient to acquire this ability, the Chinese contacted technicians at
Sevastopol Shipyard in the Ukraine, through whom they acquired some of
the Kilo submarine maintenance blueprints and started to carry out
repairs on their own. This has resulted in poor quality repair work,
according to the Russian military source.
Under the former Soviet Union, the Black Sea Fleet had Kilo submarines
and Ukraine had the responsibility to maintain and overhaul the
vessels. The technical information provided to China by the Ukrainians,
therefore, was from manuals for the earlier edition Kilo submarines.
The Kilo 636 series has undergone a thorough upgrade since that time,
with completely different battery, navigation and fire control systems,
as well as weapon systems. The Ukrainian manuals were simply not
adequate to instruct China in repairing the submarines.
As for the maintenance of the 956E DDGs, China’s Bohai Shipyard
insisted that it would overhaul the destroyers on its own, and that
Russia only needed to train its maintenance workers. Thus in 2008
Russia trained 25 technical staff for this shipyard, and another 10
this year.
Still the Russian technicians advised that the Chinese send the
destroyers back to Russia’s Zvezdochka Factory for full maintenance, as
moving the necessary heavy-duty equipment to the Bohai Shipyard would
not be easy. This is why negotiations have continued over such a long period, with no agreement yet signed on the provision of follow-up service.
Meanwhile, the PLA Navy appeared to be repairing Kilo submarines at the
Hudong Shipyard in Shanghai for some time. Interestingly, one submarine
has been anchored at a berth there for at least two years. It is likely that China has dissected one Kilo submarine for the purpose of reverse engineering and maintenance testing.
It
is worth nothing that the physical appearance of China’s Yuan class
submarine has been listed by the Russian Defense Ministry as an
imitation of the Russian Kilo submarine.
China’s unwillingness to let Russia service its existing Russian-made naval equipment
is similar to its attitude toward cooperation with the Russian air
force with regard to its fighter planes. In other words, China’s
suspicion and distrust of Russia have not abated, and its aspiration to
do everything indigenously has become stronger than ever. Source
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