Nuclear submarine is a type of submarine, which refers to a submarine designed with nuclear reactors as the source of power. The functions of nuclear submarines include attacking enemy warships or submarines, nearshore protection, breaking through blockades, reconnaissance and concealing special forces operations, etc.
During World War II, the role of submarines, known as the "underwater ghost", was fully utilized in naval warfare. According to statistics, more than half of the transport ships sunk by the Allies were made by Nazi German submarines. However, in a strict sense, the conventional submarine is not a real "submarine". In fact, it is just a surface ship that can navigate underwater for a short period of time. Conventional submarines can use diesel engines as power when sailing on the water, and batteries are powered when sailing underwater. However, batteries can only provide less than one hour of navigation operation power for submarines sailing at full speed underwater. After more than time, submarines must surface and use diesel engines to charge the battery. In modern wars with increasingly developed anti-submarine technology, surface surface is tantamount to self-exposed, bringing great crisis to its own survival.
1946, a group of scientists led by Heyman George Ricover began to study the atomic energy reactor used in ships, which is the pressurized water reactor used on submarines later. The first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus nuclear submarine, started construction in June 1952. Since then, the Soviet Union, Britain and France have successively built their own nuclear submarines.
Nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers are called strategic weapons that determine the outcome of the sea. In the history of world naval development, the birth of nuclear submarines is an important achievement in the wide application of high technology in the military field.
In the 1950s, superpowers that mastered nuclear monopoly continued to impose nuclear deterrence, and some international military powers have strengthened the development of nuclear submarines, a new weapon.
In 1958, the China nuclear submarine project, the highest secret in the country, was officially launched. This top-secret project of "Tianzi No. 1" selected Huang Xuhua, who was 34 years old at the time, and he became one of the 29 people who first developed nuclear submarines.
Huang Xuhua was born on February 24, 1924 in Tianshan Town, Haifeng County, Shanwei City, Guangdong Province. Huang Xuhua's original ambition was to inherit his father's business and save people by taking medicine. However, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, China's experience of being bombed by Japanese fighter jets made him think of learning aviation and building warships to save the country with "science". After that, he was admitted to the Shipbuilding Department of Shanghai Jiaotong University. In 1954, Huang Xuhua was transferred to the Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Administration and was selected to participate in the transfer, manufacturing and imitation of several types of ships that the Soviet Union aided China.
At that time, the development of nuclear submarines was listed as the highest secret in the country, just like the development of an atomic bomb. What is meaningful is that relevant Chinese departments use "09" as the code name for this project. "09" was the alarm number for urban fire alarms in mainland China at that time.
29-year-old Huang Xuhua takes on this important task and can be imagined. Since 1958, Huang Xuhua has begun his 30-year life of hiding his identity. In these 30 years, Huang Xuhua never returned to his hometown in Guangdong. His parents and relatives did not know what he was doing in Beijing, so they could only keep in touch with him through the mailbox. It was not until 1987 that Huang Xuhua explained his work to his family, and his father had passed away at that time.
At the beginning, the researchers participated in the imitation work of conventional Soviet submarines, and no one has seen them. Without the processing equipment of 90 cm thick steel, the development of special steel plates for submarines did not begin. In 1959, Khrushchev visited China, and China proposed that the Soviet Union help develop nuclear submarines. Khrushchev said arrogantly: "Your industrial foundation and technical level cannot be nuclear submarine at all..." The chairman at that time did not believe in evil and gave instructions: "Nuclear submarines will be built in ten thousand years!"
Why did China build nuclear submarines? Huang Xuhua explained: "There is a saying that 'To oppose the atomic bomb war, you must first have an atomic bomb'. I would also like to add: If you have an atomic bomb, you must also have a nuclear submarine."Having a nuclear submarine means that you can have the ability to carry out self-defense counterattacks in the face of nuclear strikes. The technology and technology of
nuclear submarines are extremely complex, involving dozens of professional disciplines such as navigation, missile , computers, and nuclear reactors. When Huang Xuhua and his team first received the heavy responsibility, they were almost helpless.
It was not until the successful explosion of China's first atomic bomb that solved the nuclear power problem, and the "09 Project" made progress. Most of the surface navigation of conventional submarines mostly use linear designs, while nuclear submarines mostly use underwater. In order to minimize the resistance of water to submarines, water droplet designs must be adopted, but this will make the nuclear submarine less manipulated.
Huang Xuhua and his wife
To be safe, the United States has adopted a three-step approach. First, it adopts a conventional linear type suitable for surface navigation, and at the same time builds a conventional powered water droplet line submarine to explore the fluid performance of the water droplet type. On this basis, it developed an advanced water droplet nuclear submarine.
Huang Xuhua led the designers to plunge into the comprehensive laboratory and obtained tens of thousands of data, which finally solved the maneuverability problem of nuclear submarines. Therefore, our nuclear submarine appearance design took three steps in one step to create a water droplet type.
Foreign technology blockade increased the difficulty of research and development . In order to strengthen the stability of the hull during missile launch, a certain country specially designed a cabin to place a large gyro weighing 65 tons. The underwater space is extremely precious and occupies the golden space of the submarine. After repeated calculations, analysis and research, by adjusting the equipment layout in the nuclear submarine, Huang Xuhua's team solved the problem of the 65 tons of gyro, saving space for the submarine, and the swing angle, trim angle, yaw angle, and rise and fall are close to zero.
In order to control the weight of the submarine, Huang Xuhua thought of an extremely troublesome way and placed a scale at the entrance of the ship platform. All equipment and corners that were taken in and taken out must be weighed and recorded in the case every day. . After persisting in this way for several years, when the submarine was launched to make a retry submarine, the center of gravity and floating center were completely within the control range.
1970, after spending a full 12 years of hard work, Huang Xuhua and his colleagues broke through the most critical nuclear power plant, water drop line hull, hull structure, launch device and other technologies among nuclear submarines. China's first attack nuclear submarine was successfully launched. On August 1, 1974, my country's first nuclear submarine was named "Long March 1" and was officially included in the naval combat sequence.
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4m3m104m104m11m1 attack nuclear submarine was successfully launched in April 1981. Two years and four months later, it will be delivered to the naval training and will be added to the naval combat sequence.
In 1988, Huang Xuhua, who was 64 years old, personally boarded the boat and participated in the test during the extreme deep-sea diving test of nuclear submarines, becoming the first person in the world to personally launch the water for deep-sea diving tests. He believes that during the deep diving process, if abnormal phenomena occur, he can help take immediate measures, which will facilitate the acquisition of the most direct first-hand experimental data and facilitate the subsequent work.
In the second half of 1988, China's first generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine completed underwater launch missile tests, which means that China truly has the ability to counterattack underwater.
China was able to break the foreign blockade and become the fifth country in the world to have nuclear submarines. As the general manager of the hull design of China's first-generation nuclear submarines and the chief designer of the first-generation nuclear submarines to form complete combat effectiveness, Huang Xuhua can be said to have made an indelible contribution.
"The key core technology cannot be bought. If you can't come, you can't come, and you have to rely on yourself." Huang Xuhua
Also in 1988, after completing the deep-sea submarine test and the launch test of the first-generation nuclear submarine in China's first-generation nuclear submarine, Huang Xuhua passed the baton to the second-generation nuclear submarine developers, and since then he is committed to providing suggestions for the development of nuclear submarines and promoting national and local scientific and technological development and talent training.As the leader in the field of nuclear submarine technology, Huang Xuhua led a team to carry out a series of key models developments and trained a large number of outstanding scientific and technological talents, including one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, two masters of ship design, two chief technical experts of China Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Group, one chief designer of nuclear submarine engineering, seven chief designers of model, and more than 30 deputy chief designers of model.
China's nuclear submarine development cannot be separated from a group of scientists who sacrificed their lives for the country. In addition to Huang Xuhua, there are also Zhao Renkai, Peng Shilu , Huang Weilu, etc. Among them, Zhao Renkai and Peng Shilu are nuclear power experts, and they are responsible for the manufacturing of nuclear power devices for nuclear submarines. Huang Weilu is an expert in rocket and missile technology. He is responsible for the research and development of nuclear submarine weapons and submarine-launched missiles.
From left to left Zhao Renkai Peng Shilu Huang Weilu Huang Xuhua
They have achieved a great breakthrough from zero to one in the research and development of nuclear submarines, and they have built a great cornerstone for the development of China's nuclear submarines.
In 2013, Huang Xuhua's deeds began to be exposed slowly, and everyone began to learn about this respectable scientist. On the morning of January 10, 2020, the 2019 National Science and Technology Awards Conference was held in Beijing. Huang Xuhua, the 719th Institute of China Shipbuilding Group, won China's highest honor - the National Highest Science and Technology Award.
Huang Xuhua said, "I swear to do earth-shaking things and be willing to be an unknown person. My colleagues and I belong to the motherland in this life, and we have no regrets in this life." Let us pay tribute to the best scientists in China.
