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China’s PLA Naval Aviation has conducted a major anti-submarine warfare exercise using the KQ-200 maritime patrol aircraft, demonstrating continuous submarine tracking through coordinated aircraft handovers, a capability that could play a critical role in any future conflict around Taiwan.
Designed to hunt submarines over long distances, the KQ-200 combines sonobuoys, surface-search radar, electro-optical sensors, and a magnetic anomaly detector to detect, classify, track, and engage submerged targets. The latest training focused on maintaining uninterrupted contact with enemy submarines while aircraft rotated for refueling and maintenance, addressing one of the most demanding challenges in anti-submarine warfare.
The exercise highlights China’s efforts to counter U.S. and allied attack submarines operating within the First Island Chain. Sustained tracking is essential because even brief losses of contact can allow a submarine to escape and threaten carrier strike groups, amphibious forces, and logistics vessels during a potential Taiwan contingency.
In this video, Army Recognition analyzes how the KQ-200 operates, its sensors, sonobuoy tactics, weapons, and the operational significance of China’s expanding anti-submarine warfare capabilities. We also examine what this exercise reveals—and what it does not—about the PLA Navy’s ability to detect and defeat modern nuclear-powered submarines in real combat.
Read the full analysis on Army Recognition:
https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/2026/china-officially-deploys-new-type-100-tank-as-race-with-us-over-future-warfare-accelerates
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