The Soviets began assisting Asia in manufacturing of ROMEO submarine in 1959. The Chinese variation is regarded as the type 033 . The Chinese Type 033 incorporated some improvements regarding initial ROMEO, including noise reduction of anyhow 20 dB. A complete of 84 Type 033 submarines had been incorporated Asia from 1962 to 1984, plus a few exported abroad. Today the majority of the Type 033 submarines happen resigned or preserved, with few remaining for training purposes.