Type 096 submarine can attack US homeland from China’s coast

 

The Type 096, China’s third-generation nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, has given the PLA Navy the means to strike the continental United States from the Chinese coast for the first time, according to the Singapore-based Lianhe Zaobao.

China is estimated to have four Type 094 Jin-class second-generation ballistic missile submarines. Together, those four submarines can carry 48 JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missiles and 200 nuclear warheads, which is 35% of China’s nuclear arsenal. With an attack range of 6,000 kilometers, the JL-2 missile’s threat to American forces is confined to the Western Pacific.