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Type 033 Romeo - Units

Many of the details of this program are lost to the sands of time and the dim mists of antiquity. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was little concerned with record-keeping - being more devoted to "Bombard the headquarters!" - and extant Chinese open source reporting does not even attempt a construction chronology.

Western sources [and Chinese sources] frequently report that a total of 84 Type 033 submarines were built in China from 1962 to 1984, plus several exported to other countries. Other Chinese sources reliably report a total of 106 were built, of which 22 were in service by the end of 1972, according to a 1983 CIA report. The unit list presented here can account for 21 boats in service by the end of 1972, rather than the reported 22, which is good enough for government work.

A total of 47 were built in Jiangnan Shipyard [only 38 had been detected by Western intelligence from 1973 through 1981], 42 in Wuchang Shipyard [only 22 of which were detected by Western intelligence 1973-81], 13 in Huangpu Shipyard [8 of which were detected by Western intelligence 1973-81], 3 in Peiling Shipyard, and 1 in Bohai Shipyard (not all Chinese accounts mention Bohai). The 1982 CIA report did not account for the timing or distribution of the 34 boats that were outside of its purview, although a few are anecdotally accountable. It would seem that possibly a dozen of these "missing" boats were built after 1982 [the cutoff date for the CIA report] and 1987, when Chinese sources report the last boat was put into service.

Of these 16 were transferred to North Korea between 1973 and 1975 (4 complete boats were transferred free of charge, and a further 12 were semi-finished products for North Korean final assembly -- 11 ROMEOs were constructed at Sinpo between 1974 and 1979, and another in 1982). Probably the 12 knock-down boat sets from Shanghai Jiangnan are part of the 106 total production, rather than in addition to this number. Four "033" were sold to Egypt between February 1982 and 1983. The yards associated with the sale of four finished boats to North Korea and the same number to Egypt is not attested, but it is easier to accomodate these numbers within reported Wuhan production than at other yards. This would bring to 20 the number of boats built in China for service elsewhere, which pretty much accounts for the discrepancy between the 84 boat number cited in Western sources and the 106 boats cited by Chinese sources. Several were sold to the Thai Navy in 1990 from existing Chinese stocks.

The first boat was started at the Jiangnan Shipyard on February 18, 1960, launched on August 21, 1963, and delivered to the army for service in September 1965, port number 136. The last Type 033 submarine to be built was the No. 304 submarine built by Huangpu Shipyard in November 1985 and commissioned in 1987.

Some domestic service numbers are: New China 36, 42, 209-218, 227, 228, 237-240, 242, 246, 249-260, 268-280, 286-288, 291-304, 343-349, 355). This inventory of 88 numbers is about 20 short of the total 106 hulls produced, reflecting exports, and lines up pretty well with the number placed into PLAN service.