GOOGLE EARTH=AWESOME A commercial satellite recently spotted the first Jin boat, China's new class of ballistic missile submarines. The Jins will carry 12 or 16 missiles (no one is quite sure, yet) with a range of about 8000km. Combined with the further development of Chinese ICBMs, the days in which only West Coast residents need to worry about Chinese missiles will shortly be over. Word is that the Chinese will build five Jin boats, which, assuming that they keep three at sea at all times, will go some distance to providing a credible, survivable nuclear deterrent. While I'm deeply skeptical about British plans to modernize their submarine based force, SSBNs make a lot of sense for the Chinese. We don't know, of course, how easy it will be for these boats to hide, and it's likely that each will be regularly tailed by a friendly US attack sub while on station. --Robert Farley
