Recently words are floating that 054B construction will start at late May. Material ordered for its construction will be delivered by then. If true, we may see some pix from the shipyard toward end of this year.

So far, this may be the most accurate depiction of the 054B yet. 5000 ton, electric propulsion, aft integrated mast, two sided phase array rotating radar. I assume it'd be equipped with naval Z-20, but wonder is it still using the same VLS as the old 054A if we're seeing separate YJ-12 anti-ship missile launcher..

The PAR radar is probably the one tested on the experiment ship since a few years ago.

Meanwhile the 7th 054A from the new batch of 20 is launched today.

A 054A from the new batch that was launched earlier is about to go on sea trial.

The new 054A can be tell apart from the old 054A with the 4 MR-90 HQ-16 fire control radar replaced, and larger bridge window.

Current 054A.

054A shadowing French frigate Vendémiaire, which is as old as the oldest PLAN ship still in service, ie. the Luhu class. This clown sailed through the Taiwan strait in 2019, as a result its invitation to attend PLAN 70th naval day parade that year was rescinded.

054A shadowing LCS. I think 054A is better suited for these jobs than 056/A.

054A with 093 SSN.

093B SSN.

Huludao a few years back and now where a new submarine is observed. This is the place where nuclear sub are built. Naturally they'd keep an eye here.

As observed the new sub at 110 m length and 10 m beam is a nuclear sub without doubt. The SSK is around 76 m length and 7.6 m beam. It wasn't seen on Apr 26, but was seen on Apr 29. Likely to have been transferred out from the construction hall. It has shrouded propulsion, and possibly vertical launchers for missile.

A few years back, a slide introducing the new type SSN as one with 7000 ton displacement, new nuclear reactor and propulsion system, new weapon system and informational warfare system. Shrouded propulsion and VLS seem to be its visible signature.

Could the shrouded propulsion be a pumpjet propulsion?

A later magazine depicting type 095 with similar features. It has bow-mounted active/passive arrays (A) wide aperture passive flank arrays (B). towed array sonar (C). For the first time it has eight torpedo tubes, able to launch 4 wire-guided torpedoes at the same time (D). It has modular VLS for various type of missiles up to 12 (E). It has shrouded propulsion (F).

The most recent model from CSSC basically confirmed these features as well. So what we're seeing is most likely the 095 first hull, meaning PLAN has started construction of 095.