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Google Maps Shows Chinese Nuclear Sub Prototype

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the pants-meet-ankles dept.

mytrip writes "An image of what could be one of China's new nuclear ballistic missile submarines is available on the Google Maps and Google Earth satellite-image site, a defense blogger claimed Tuesday. The satellite picture was discovered by Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project for the Federation of American Scientists, and announced Tuesday on his blog. Kristensen believes the picture, taken by the Quickbird satellite late last year, reveals China's new Jin-class, or Type 094, nuclear ballistic missile sub. The new sub class is approximately 35 feet longer than its predecessor, the Xia-class, also known as Type 092, according to two images Kristensen compares on the blog. The Jin-class sub has an extended midsection that houses 12 missile tubes and part of the reactor compartment, Kristensen explains."

15 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by epiphani · · Score: 5, Funny

    The have the Xia and the Jin class submarines. As long as they don't go Super-XiaJin, we should be ok. /who needs karma..

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    1. Re:Well... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 4, Funny

      If he doesn't get the reference, he's not going to know what "DBZ" stands for.

      It's a cartoon named "Dragonball Z", which has an alien race of superheroes named "Saiyans." I'm not a fan of the show, but when the Saiyans get angry, they start glowing or something and become Super-Saiyans. Thus the pun.

      The cartoon was super-popular among people who like really boring, poorly-animated cartoons for a decade. Per usual, since it's a pointless useless topic, there's an extensive Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Ball_Z

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      Comment of the year
  2. Chinese submarines by Lucas123 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So is it true that they have screen doors?

    1. Re:Chinese submarines by inviolet · · Score: 4, Funny

      So is it true that they have screen doors?

      Of course not. I invested the better part of my childhood in intensive study of Chinese products, and so I have it on good authority that the submarine's doors are injection-molded plastic, bright red, mounted on long thin metal hinge-pins. The plastic will break after fifty operations, or the hinge-pin will rust out. The damage will not be field repairable and so the sub will sink. However, the entire sub only costs $23.99 ($12.40 wholesale in lots of 10000), so they'll just pick up a replacement on their way home.

      Man, can you imagine getting that thing out of the blister package?

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      FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
  3. the cold war.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    having google maps during the cuban missle crisis or the cold war would've been bad ass...

    "dude....call JFK...I think I see a launcher!"

    *goes back to playing pong*

  4. Re:Oh snap! by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    If I owned that many Treasury bonds AND a nuclear submarine I'd unfurl a big legible banner in English across the top of it:

    PAY UP

  5. Re:How much do you want to bet... by halivar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Parent is correct. The cost of the 9mm round is distributed amongst all the proletariat.

    *ducks* *runs*

  6. Re:How much do you want to bet... by coredog64 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Under the authority granted me as director of weapons research and development, I commissioned last year a study of this project by the Bland corporation. Based on the findings of the report, my conclusion was that this idea was not a practical deterrent, for reasons which, at this moment, must be all too obvious
  7. Re:How much do you want to bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    That the the family of the guy in charge of security just got a bill for a single 9mm round?

    You are completely ignorant if you believe that. The Chinese don't do that at all. They use 7.92mm.

  8. If you look really close... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can see the sailors running around on deck, almost like they're having a fire drill.

  9. Re:Wrong again by modecx · · Score: 5, Funny

    I bet if heard underwater, that comment would sound something like "Zing!"

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    Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
  10. Re:Oh snap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny
    China is gonna be pissed.


    You mean, someones going to go ballistic?

  11. Re:Incorrect by Phisbut · · Score: 5, Funny

    and last time I checked, 0.3>0.33>1.

    Then I suggest you check again, because over here, 0.3<0.33<1

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    After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
    - The Tao of Programming
  12. Re:Classified? by Ambitwistor · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine what detail they would get if they had a guy in a van outside your house with a huge zoom lens, I mean they could tell if you picked your nose (yet)! You mean, like this?
  13. Re:Classified? by DataBroker · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's way way better than Google Maps, but you can't identify a face that only takes up 4 "pixels".

    You, good sir, need to buy a clue! I know better, I've seen CSI!!! Don't you know that they're able to zoom-in, enhance, zoom-in, enhance, and zoom-in, enhance anything? They're able to zoom in (and enhance) on the inverted reflection on the concave of a spoon, which is on a reflection of someone's sunglasses, who is in near-total darkness, and underwater. I've heard they're almost able to do facial biometrics and genetic tests from that same picture!

    Surely if they can do that, they can zoom-in enough to recognize people from a high-tech satellite!