"Design of the Yuan-class Sub" Topic

This rebuttal will examine the key points of the essay's argument and show that the Type 039 A/B Yuan-class is, in fact, an open-ocean submarine designed to meet the needs of the PLAN's near-seas active defense aspect of their maritime strategy, and not primarily a boat to operate in Taiwan's coastal waters.

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Fairly well-argued, though you would expect that from a former submarine captain!

The problem with the Russian-designed diesel subs is their terribly small torpedo capacity. Whiskey-class subs only carry 12 torpedoes. Romeo-class only carry 14 torpedoes. Kilo-class only carry 18 weapons.

In comparison, the Japanese Soryu-class has 6 tubes and 20 reloads. The Australian Collins-class has 22 torpedoes. (the WW2-vintage Gato-class has space for 24 weapons, the Tench-class had space for 28 weapons, the Tang-class had space for 26 weapons, Skate-class SSNs carried 22 weapons, Barbel-class SSKs carried 18 weapons, Skipjack-class SSNs carried 24 weapons, Permit-class SSNs carried ~24 weapons, 637-class carried 21 weapons, 688s carry ~25 torpedoes and 12x VLS Tomahawks, Seawolf-class carries 50 weapons, and the Virginia-class carries 27 torpedoes and 12x VLS). Heck, even an Ohio-class can carry 13 torpedoes and another 4 in the torpedo tubes.