Each of our material, covering the military-political situation in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, usually focuses on the details of the "Three chains" strategy, which was described in the "White Paper" of the PLA literally two years earlier. This strategy is quite effective in terms of stopping military-strategic threats emanating from island bridgeheads and naval strike groups of the US, Indian, Japanese and Vietnamese navies within Southeast Asia, as well as the western and southern parts of the Pacific Ocean. But these are far from the lines that should be controlled by such a superpower as the PRC. It is worth looking at the same geography of the Malabar naval exercise between the US, Indian and Japanese navies.
This is happening off the coast of India and in other parts of the Indian Ocean, which indicates the early development of a strategy to counter the Chinese fleet in various parts of the World Ocean. Moreover, the exercises, conducted from October 14 to 19, 2015, included an underwater confrontation between the American multipurpose nuclear submarine SSN-705 USS "City of Corpus Christy" and the Indian low-noise diesel-electric submarine pr. 877EKM B-898 "Sindhudhvaj", in which an unconditional victory was won by a Russian-made submarine. This, of course, is another big plus for the Leningrad Halibuts. But if we talk from a geostrategic point of view, then this training confrontation is a sign of the preparation of the Indian admiralty with its allies for a submarine war with the Chinese Navy. "Heaps" against Beijing and Vietnam, which provides the Cam Ranh naval base for various needs of the American Navy's warships. The situation for the leadership of the Celestial Empire is not entirely pleasant, but, judging by what is happening, a worthy response to the "anti-Chinese axis" has already been found, and the first signs of it appeared long before they were trumpeted by the Indian and Western media.
From April to June 2016, a very unusual long-range cruise of one of the Chinese Project 093 "Shan" (Type-93) multipurpose nuclear submarines with long-range torpedo and anti-ship missile weapons on board took place. According to Indian information resources, the submarine "lit up" at the commercial pier of the port of Karachi, accompanied by several supply tankers. The photographs of the sub were taken by commercial satellites with high-resolution optics. It is known that "Shan" left the largest naval base of the Yulin submarine fleet (on the island of Hainan) around mid-April 2016, then passed Singapore, and entered the Indian Ocean through the Malacca Strait on April 19-20, 2016. Within a month, the MAPL with an escort slowly moved across the Indian Ocean, and, bypassing Sri Lanka and the Laccadive Sea, rushed to the Arabian Sea, where it paid a visit to Pakistani Karachi. The submarine stayed here from May 19 to May 26, after which it headed for the shores of Oman (Arabian Peninsula) and Somalia. Near the African shores, "Shan" made a huge detour to the south and by June 15 left the Indian Ocean through the same Strait of Malacca. The Indian media described the situation only 7 months later.
It was reported that the submarine was "tightly" accompanied by a long-range anti-submarine aircraft of the Indian Naval Forces P-8I "Poseidon", which scattered many sonar buoys on the path of the Chinese naval formation, and the Indians also managed to declare that the "Shan" is much noisier than modern Russian and American MAPLs. In principle, this is understandable, but this case brought a lot of "rustle" in Delhi: apparently, Poseidon did not find it so quickly and smoothly. After all, the main evidence of the discovery is satellite images of a submarine already moored in the port of Karachi. On the Internet page of the Indian television channel NDTV, it was even suggested that Beijing plans to sell the Shan to the Pakistani Navy, but this conclusion borders on real nonsense, since no superpower would sell its submarine strike cruisers to third countries. But "muscle flexing" and a reciprocal demonstration of strategic manners is quite an adequate action on the part of China.
Moreover, Pakistan is becoming for China an increasingly reliable military-strategic and economic support in Central Asia. Firstly, this is the largest contract for the joint production of light tactical fighters of the 4+ generation JF-17 “Thunder” (FC-1 “Xiaolong”), which is a good answer to the serial production of Indian HAL “Tejas”. Secondly, - a contract for the joint construction of 8 ultra-low-noise anaerobic diesel-electric submarines, project 041 "Yuan", which must be completed by 2028. By the level of acoustic secrecy, these submarines correspond or even surpass the "Varshavyanka". By getting involved in an arms race with China, the Indian leadership can get a lot of problems that hit from both sides at once. In addition, the issue of territorial affiliation of the states of Kashmir and Jammu, which has not been resolved between Delhi and Islamabad to this day, will never lead to the loss of Beijing's influence in the region. After all, it is China that is the main and only stable strategic partner for Pakistan, capable of strengthening its defense capability against the background of the improving Indian Armed Forces.
It was also a clear sign for the US Navy, warning of serious consequences in response to the management of URO destroyers and anti-submarine aircraft of the US Navy in the South China Sea. "Shan" and more promising Chinese MAPL "Type-095", equipped with an ultra-low-noise water jet propulsion system, in the next 5 years will be able to "paralyze" the operation of the US Navy in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.
The question for Delhi and Washington is even more acute after information about the visit of another Chinese submarine to the Malaysian naval base of Kota Kinabalu, which took place on January 3, 2017. The Ministry of Defense of the PRC confirms that the submarine with the support ship really decided to visit Kota Kinabalu for the purpose of rest at the end of the escort operation in the Gulf of Aden. Nevertheless, it becomes clear here that Beijing's main task today is to find loopholes to increase control in the region with a gradual entry into the global arena.
