Long March 1
LM 1

Designed in the late 1950’s the submarine called type 09-1 by the Chinese was the first attempt to of the Chinese nation to build a working nuclear-powered submarine, eventually the type 09-1 came to fruition in 1974 with the launch of submarine 401. NATO's designation is 'Han-class'.

Long March 1 was laid down in the Bohai shipyards in Huludao 1968 to much secrecy, she then went through a building phase which lasted until her final fitting out and in 1974 when she was commissioned into the People Liberation Army Navy.
The Long March 1 was more of a mix of submarines, it incorporated the design of the American style teardrop hull, with a soviet style Sail and used French reactor and sonar components.

Five submarines were built between 1968 and 1990 showing that these boats had some very heavy engineering troubles through the building phase, their primary role was designed to attack shipping and provide China with their first generation of nuclear submarines.

These submarines were 98 meters long, 10 meters wide had a draft of 7.5 meters and a submerged displacement of 5,500tons.
The light weight is a result of poor reactor shielding as well as lack of rafting of machine components and also lack of anechoic coatings hence why the type 09-1 are so noisy.

Not much is known about Long March 1 and her operational career, it is likely she patrolled waters close to home and into the Chinese EEZ.
Long March 1 was decommissioned in 2000 after 26 years of service and is now on display at the naval museum Qingdao.

 

Museum info:
Address: 8 Laiyang Road, Shinan District, Qingdao, Shadong, China
Phone: +86(532)8287-4786
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