RN's Future Dreadnought OR USN's Columbia SSBN Better?

Should the video title "Which is better !! Royal Navy’s Dreadnought vs US Navy’s Columbia, Future submarines" be asked at all? 

The video, uploaded by "HUF HACK" October 20, 2020, is here https://youtu.be/vCyRPxqzR08 and below:

Comparing China's and the US's Combat Power

I think Australia’s ABC News video title “How China is flexing its military muscle under the rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping” is off the mark.

Also ABC’s comparison of China and US power shows limitations. For example implying a Chinese aircraft carrier can be compared 1-to-1 with an American one? Comparing recent, large scale, operational experience?

The video is here https://youtu.be/sK89YutzjBQ and below. What do you think?

"Jive's" Sub Brief: India's INS Arihant class SSBN Project

 "Jive" (an ex-USN electronic warfare (sonar) specialist submariner through to the 2000s) here https://youtu.be/stoYRQKhKtQ and below 

provides a briefing on India's nuclear submarine Arihant class/"Advanced Technology Vessel" project. From the video:

1:40 -  Project 932 (for a submarine reactors and nuclear subs (SSBN and SSNs) began in the 1970s.

2:10 - in the early 1980s the top Russian military leadership announce and commence Transfer of Technology (ToT) of nuclear subs especially reactors to India. 

3:00 as a technology and training demonstrator, Soviet Charlie-class SSGN, is leased to India for 4 years from 1987 being called INS Chakra I.

4:15 another demonstrator, a Russian Akula class SSN, is leased to India for 10 years from 2012, called INS Chakra II. At end of lease in 2022 it is expected India will buy it outright.

5:20 Jive is wrong in saying the keel of INS Arihant was laid down in "2009". 2009 was the year Arihant was launched - see here "July 26, 2009" and here. Meanwhile INS Arighat's keel was laid down 2011. Both "very short" for SSBNs, so have few meters/little space for missile compartments.

7:00 Bow of Arihant very similar to Kilo class, according to photos Jive presents. Jive then assumes  Arihant has the bow of the design and size/beam of a diesel electric Kilo sub. Jive assumes Arihant therefore has 6 x 530mm torpedo tubes (capable of launching "Kalibr" [or Klub?] land attack SLCMs.

8:12 Jives assumes the Arihant has an USHUS-2 indigenous bow sonar system, based in Russian Rubicon-M

8:42 The sail and non (hull) penetrating masts (eg. photonic) etc. Non penetrating reduces flooding risks.

10:40 Arihant's ballistic missile capacity is minor, but a good start.

11:45 Combat system (Russian derived?) and steering/diving

13:50 Exterior. "INS Arihant at sea."

Jive concludes India developing several SSBNs and SLBM types is a "huge advance" done quickly and in line with non-proliferation treaties [except for proliferating the nuclear weapons? Noting some international reactions to 1998 nuclear tests.].

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Submarine Matters has numerous articles on Arihant, Arighat, submarine reactors, SLBMs and India's whole submarine fleet since 2009.

Naval Group to repair French ‘Perle’ SSN damaged by fire

By chopping Perle in half! 

See https://www.defensenews.com/smr/euronaval/2020/10/22/naval-group-will-repair-french-perle-nuclear-sub-damaged-by-fire/

Japan maintains Plutonium stockpile: Useful for Nuclear Weapons

PETE COMMENT

It appears Japan has maintained a large Plutonium stockpile because Plutonium, being the most common, modern, nuclear explosive, gives Japan a future option of a nuclear weapons capability.

Alternatively Japan maintains such a high profile nuclear breakout capacity to encourage continuing US maintenance of the nuclear deterrent umbrella against Japan's possible enemies (North Korea, China and Russia). 

Japan and the US both realize that if Japan moved toward building its own nuclear deterrent this would severely destabilize the power balance in East Asia, eg. leading North Korea and China to rapidly enlarge their nuclear arsenals. Also South Korea and Taiwan might be tempted to follow Japan's indigenous nuclear weapons lead. 

So the US is better off maintaining the nuclear umbrella so Japan doesn't need to build its own.

ARTICLE

MARI YAMAGUCHI for Associated Press, has written an excellent article, dated October 21, 2020, at https://apnews.com/article/cabinets-recycling-yoshihide-suga-energy-policy-japan-66218c8a44a498a1535380066da466e9 .

“Japan sticks to nuke fuel cycle despite plutonium stockpile”

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s government said Wednesday it will pursue its nuclear fuel recycling program that would involve extracting plutonium from spent fuel, despite international concerns about the country’s already huge plutonium stockpile and lack of prospects for effectively consuming it as nuclear fuel.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, at a meeting with the governor of Aomori prefecture, home to Japan’s pending nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, reaffirmed that new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government will pursue the country’s nuclear energy policy.

“The government will firmly promote our nuclear energy policy and fuel cycle programs,” Kato said. He said Japan will make effort to reduce volume and toxicity of high-level nuclear waste, and extract plutonium from spent fuel from a resource conservation point of view.

But critics say continuation of spent fuel reprocessing only adds to Japan’s already large plutonium stockpile. Japan also lacks a final repository for high-level nuclear waste.

Wednesday’s meeting came after the Nuclear Regulation Authority granted a safety approval this past summer for the Rokkasho fuel reprocessing plant, operated by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., located in northern Japan, for a planned launch in 2022. The authority also gave a preliminary permit for the Rokkasho MOX fuel production plant, also planned for completion in 2022.

Japan now has 45.5 tons of separated plutonium — 8.9 tons at home, and 36.6 tons in Britain and France, where spent fuel from Japanese nuclear plants has been reprocessed and stored because Japan lacks a plant to produce MOX fuel containing plutonium at home. The amount is enough to make about 6,000 atomic bombs.

Despite security concerns raised by Washington and others, the stockpile is hardly decreasing due to difficulties in achieving a full nuclear fuel recycling program and slow restarts of reactors amid setbacks from the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Japan reprocesses spent fuel, instead of disposing it as waste, to extract plutonium and uranium to make MOX fuel for reuse, while the U.S. discontinued the costly and challenging program. Allowed under international safeguard rules, Japan is the only non-nuclear weapons state that separates plutonium for peaceful purposes, though the same technology can make atomic bombs.

Japan has pledged not to possess excess plutonium and to put a cap on the amount of extraction from spent fuel. The Rokkasho plant operator rules out any proliferation risks, citing tight safeguards and close monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency."

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Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi

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FURTHER READING

See Submarine Matters' articles on Japan’s nuclear weapons capabilities written in 2008,  2012, 2013, 2016 and 2018.

Indonesia rejects US P-8 ASW&ISR aircraft on Natuna Islands

Reuters reports, October 20, 2020 on the Indonesian rejection: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-usa-exclusive/exclusive-indonesia-rejected-u-s-request-to-host-spy-planes-officials-idUSKBN2750KX 

Indonesia's Natuna Islands (see map below) are strategically located on the southern edge of the South China Sea and contain a dual-use civil-military airport/base (photo below) that could take US, Australian and New Zealand P-8 Poseidons. The location and runway make it highly likely that this is the Indonesian base that Indonesia could use to cater for US P-8s. The base could refuel and provide  low level (some spare parts) maintenance for US P-8s. Indonesian navy ships and submarines can already visit Indonesia's small naval base on the Natuna Islands. See details here and here.

The map above marks Indonesia's Natuna Islands (point 4) which are geographically at the center of Indonesia’s seaspace claim into the South China Sea – a claim which partly overlaps with China's so-called nine-dash line that envelopes most of the South China Sea. (Map courtesy Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative via the Sydney Morning Herald)

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Above is the Indonesian civil-military airport on Natuna Besar.
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Both the map and photo are from James Massola’s and Amilia Rosa’s, Sydney Morning Herald article of June 27, 2020, reporting an ongoing geopolitical Indonesia-China standoff, at https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/natuna-an-idyll-on-the-front-line-between-indonesia-and-china-20200617-p553g2.html.