Type-091 (Han)

The Type 091 (Han-class) is China's first class of nuclear-powered attack submarines. These submarines were designed for anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare.

Initiated in the late 1950s under Chairman Mao Zedong's directive to break the superpower nuclear monopoly, the Type 091 program proceeded entirely indigenously after the Sino-Soviet split cut off Soviet technical assistance. The lead vessel, Changzheng 1, was launched in 1970 and officially entered service with the People's Liberation Army Navy in 1974. Throughout their service, these submarines conducted patrols in the Western Pacific, notably shadowing US carrier groups during the 1995–1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis and provoking a diplomatic incident by entering Japanese waters in 2004. While early units have been decommissioned—with the lead boat preserved as a museum ship in Qingdao—the class laid the crucial technological foundation for China's modern nuclear submarine fleet.