Details of first Russian-Chinese joint submarine exercise emerge

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Details of the first joint Russian-Chinese submarine exercise have been published in a military magazine, which said the two countries had shared sonar data and carried out rescue exercises. The exercise in early August involved two Kilo-class diesel-electric attack submarines, the Russian Volkhov and Chinese Great Wall 210, with two Russian surface ships providing support throughout the exercise. The 15-day exercise took place after the Joint Sea 2025 exercise involving the two navies in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea. According to China’s Ordnance Industry Science Technology magazine, the two subs passed through the Tsushima Strait that divides South Korea and Japan, entering the East China Sea before finally returning to their bases, covering around 2,000 nautical miles (3,700km or 2,302 miles) in total. “[It] sent a clear message to the United States … underwater dominance in the western Pacific is no longer to be monopolised by a single power,” the magazine said, adding that the exercise had also shown the high levels of strategic trust between the two countries. The series of operations near Japan, held around the anniversary of the country’s surrender in World War II, was also a gesture against the US-Japan alliance, the report said. As part of the patrol, the two submarines practised detecting simulated enemy submarines, while also sharing sonar data. They also carried out a “mutual rescue” drill and were joined by one Russian and one Chinese rescue boat to deal with emergency calls from the other countries’ subs – an exercise that required information sharing and interoperability, the report added. The two sides also shared air defence radar data to intercept targets during the earlier joint exercise and shared key sensor data on anti-submarine warfare. All these exchanges of highly sensitive information underscored “a deep mutual trust in core military areas”, the report said. It also said that before the exercises, the Great Wall 210 had shown its stealth qualities by successfully passing through the heavily monitored Tsushima Strait without triggering US underwater sonar arrays. China selected the Great Wall 210 for the patrol because it was a Russian-made 636 Kilo submarine with similar qualities to the Volkhov, a 636.3 version, the report said. The Kilo class is one of the world’s most widely exported diesel-electric submarines, featuring a low acoustic signature. It is primarily designed for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare on the high seas or along the coast. China imported 12 of the submarines in the 1990s and early 2000s, 10 of which are still active. This year was the 11th edition of the Joint Sea exercise, an exercise that started in 2012 and has been held every year since then apart from 2018, 2020 and 2023. Most previous editions took place in the northwestern Pacific – including the Japan, Yellow and East China Seas – but some have also been held in the Baltic and Mediterranean. They have featured a range of defensive and offensive drills as well as search and rescue operations and tests of interoperability between the forces – for example, landing helicopters on each other’s ships. Since 2021, the exercises have also featured joint patrols in the Sea of Japan and northwest Pacific.