China’s mystery submersible could carry 16 missiles and force a tactical rethink, says Admiral Sinha

China’s unconventional, partially submersible trimaran could present a new challenge for naval surveillance and maritime warfare, Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha (Retd.) said on WION’s Defence Pulse, assessing a design whose capabilities remain unconfirmed.

The discussion was based on a Naval News report examining satellite imagery supplied by Vantor. The report assessed an unusual three-hulled vessel and its possible configuration as a missile-carrying submersible platform.

Sinha, Trustee, India Foundation, former FOC-in-C, Western Naval Command, and former Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, compared its appearance with an arsenal ship, a platform designed around substantial missile firepower.

“It resembles the American design of an Arsenal ship,” he said, while emphasising the Chinese vessel’s potentially different operating characteristics.

Missile load and potential targets

The discussion examined estimates that the vessel could accommodate around 16 missiles. Sinha considered such a load technically plausible, but its actual armament has not been publicly established. He also raised the possibility of hypersonic weapons, explicitly describing his assessment as “my own hunch”.

“If it is hypersonic,” he said, the potential targets could include “both important land targets and the bigger, larger targets of the United States Navy”. The distinction matters because a vessel’s military significance depends on its weapons and operational endurance, rather than its unusual shape alone.
The challenge of finding it

Sinha argued that partial submergence should not automatically be equated with easy detection. “It’s not very easy, you know, to get after a submersible in the middle of the ocean,” he said.

He also cautioned against simplistic assumptions about targeting major warships. “Finding an aircraft carrier is not a joke.”

Discussing the Chinese platform’s possible underwater behaviour, Sinha suggested its signatures could complicate detection. These were assessments, not verified measurements of its stealth or propulsion.

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New questions for naval planners

For Sinha, the design’s significance lies in the tactical questions it raises: how it might operate, when it would be vulnerable and how opposing forces would locate it. “They will have to start reworking their tactics,” he said.

He nevertheless acknowledged the limits of the available evidence. “We don’t know the full potential.”
Sinha also highlighted the potential role of Chinese satellite networks in supporting the vessel’s targeting and missile guidance. His assessment suggests the platform’s firepower would depend partly on information supplied from space, rather than onboard sensors alone.

The reported vessel therefore remains an emerging development to watch, with its missile configuration, degree of autonomy and ability to submerge still requiring confirmation.