China strengthens patrols of nuclear submarines US, UK, Pacific deterrence patrol confrontation

China strengthened patrols of nuclear submarines, pressuring the United States and its allies, and the United States responded with deterrence patrols of nuclear submarines in the Pacific Ocean. The United Kingdom dispatched marines for the first ROK-US joint amphibious exercise since the Korean War.
The British Royal Navy announced on the same day in a press release that 40 members of Bravo Company, a special marine unit of the Marine Corps, participated in the ROK-US joint amphibious exercise “Ssangryong Exercise” near Pohang, South Korea on the 3rd.
From the 20th of last month to the 3rd of this month, South Korea and the United States conducted a large-scale joint amphibious exercise called “Ssangryong Exercise” by mobilizing a division-level landing force, large transport ships, and amphibious assault ships.
The South Korean, U.S., and Japanese navies began a two-day anti-submarine exercise led by the U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier Nimitz fleet in the open waters south of the Korean Peninsula on the 3rd.
A Pentagon report said China's six Jin-class ballistic missile submarines are on "near-continuous" patrols from Hainan Island to the South China Sea, which analysts say could hit the US mainland if equipped with new long-range ballistic missiles, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The dispatch of the British Marine Corps Commando squadron is qualified as a 'UNC power provider', and the Korea-US-UK joint search exercise was conducted for two days from the 22nd of last month, and Voice of America (VOA) reported that Australia participated as a power provider in last year's Ssangryong exercise. day reported.
The British Royal Navy press release said, “We are stepping up efforts to engage in the Indo-Pacific, a region where the security situation is complex and strategically important.”
Regarding the US nuclear submarine's deterrence patrol, it "enables the threat of a nuclear counterattack even if land-based missiles and systems are destroyed, and in accordance with classical nuclear doctrine, deters the adversary from launching an initial attack," Reuters reported.
"We're going to have SSNs [American designation for nuclear-powered attack submarines] trying to track them down, and the additional demands on our assets are clear," said Christopher Twomey, professor of security at California's Naval Graduate School. "But the point here is intelligence. (Continuous patrol) is changing so fast you don't know what else has changed," he told Reuters.
“The new patrols represent improvements in many areas, including logistics, command and control, and weapons,” according to military officials, submarine analysts and security experts. It shows how to start operating a ballistic missile submarine in much the same way.”
A Pentagon report said China's third-generation missile is the JL-3, which has a range of more than 10,000 kilometers and carries multiple warheads, allowing China to reach the US mainland from Chinese coastal waters for the first time.
"Chinese submarines are currently equipped with third-generation missiles, the JL-3," US Strategic Commander Gen. Anthony Cotton previously told a congressional hearing.
A Pentagon report last year predicted that China would not deploy the JL-3 until it launches its next-generation Type-096 submarine in the next few years, but that was wrong.
Timothy Wright, a defense analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said: "The US military can cope with the current situation, but will need to commit more assets in the future once the Stealth Type 10 patrol begins." "It means for the first time we will have to fight two 'nuclear fellow adversaries', which will be of concern to the US as it expands our defenses, puts more targets at risk and needs to be addressed with additional conventional and nuclear capabilities," Reuters said to
“China can keep its ballistic missile submarines in ‘fortresses’ in protected waters near its shores,” said Collin Koh, professor of security at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. And the South China Sea is the perfect place for that," he told Reuters.
Hans Kristensen, head of nuclear intelligence at the Federation of American Scientists, said of China's nuclear submarines, "Command and communications issues remain a 'work in progress'. “Tensions are rising as the Americans try to stab those fortifications and see what they can and should be done,” he said. Incidents can happen," he told Reuters.
Reuters reported that three analysts, including Christenses, diagnosed that "Russia keeps most of its 11 ballistic missile submarines in fortifications along the Arctic coast, while US, French and British submarines roam more widely."
The US Navy owns and operates nuclear-powered attack submarines throughout the Pacific Ocean, including Guam and Hawaii, in its Pacific Fleet. Under the AUKUS Agreement with Australia and the United Kingdom, US and British nuclear submarines are also deployed to Western Australia.
U.S. nuclear submarines are a key weapon in ballistic missile submarine hunting, supported by surface ships and P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, and the U.S. has undersea sensors in major waterways, including the Pacific, to detect submarines, Reuters said.

Since the nuclear aircraft carrier fleet is operating in the ROK-US-Japan anti-submarine joint exercise, it seems that a justification for expansion in the area of China's nuclear submarine activity is provided in the East China Sea and the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula.
<The first Korea-US-Japan anti-submarine joint exercise to restore the Korea-Japan security alliance begins. See dated April 3, 2023>