China says its newest nuclear submarines fired the strategic missile it tested in the Pacific

China has said for the first time that its third-generation nuclear submarines took part in a submarine-launched strategic missile test in the Pacific earlier this year, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 19 in a story carried by The Straits Times. The claim appeared in a post by the official Xinhua News Agency on its WeChat account on Oct. 17, which stated that the Changzheng series of nuclear submarines has reached its third generation and successfully organised the test launch.

The Hong Kong news site on.cc also reported the Xinhua article, dating it to Saturday, Oct. 17, and carried analysis suggesting that a new ballistic missile submarine may already exist. The Liberty Times in Taipei, citing Bloomberg, said the post was accompanied by a photograph of the launch.

Chinese state media did not say which submarine or which missile was used. According to Bloomberg, the launch in question took place in July and showed the sea-based leg of China's nuclear forces. Before July, China had carried out only two publicly known intercontinental ballistic missile tests into the Pacific, and both were fired from land.

When the July test was first announced, the PLA Navy said through Xinhua that a missile carrying a training warhead had struck a designated area of the open Pacific, the Ukrainian defence outlet Militarnyi reported at the time. Navy spokesperson Wang Xuewen said the launch was part of the annual training plan and that relevant countries had been told in advance. Beijing gave no submarine type, missile model or impact location. It was the first such test China had announced since a land-based ICBM launch into the Pacific in September 2024.

Analysts had assumed that the July launch came from a Type 094 Jin-class boat, a second-generation design that has been in service for close to a decade. Militarnyi reported that China operates six Type 094 submarines and that upgraded Type 094A boats carry the JL-3 missile, which Beijing presented at its military parade on Sept. 3, 2025 as the core of its naval nuclear deterrent.

The new Xinhua wording points to a newer boat. Bloomberg described the disclosure as the first time Beijing has said its latest submarines were used for the test, and the first known use of third-generation boats by the People's Liberation Army. Unverified photographs circulating online show what analysts identify as Type 095 attack submarines and Type 096 ballistic missile submarines. Beijing has officially confirmed only the Type 095, which was not known to have been deployed.

The Liberty Times cautioned that the post does not settle whether a Type 096 fired the missile or whether the weapon was a JL-3. It noted that attack submarines and ballistic missile submarines have different roles, so the type used in the test cannot be judged from photographs of the hulls alone.

China's submarine building also appears to be speeding up. Commercial satellite imagery suggests that two new submarine types were launched in 2026 at the Jiangnan and Huludao shipyards, Bloomberg reported, although the Liberty Times said the images are not enough to confirm their designations or whether they have entered service. The July test drew criticism from Japan and Australia, and Xinhua published its latest post to mark the 90th anniversary of the Long March.