In order to achieve the grand goal of turning the Indian Ocean into its own "back garden", in addition to exerting power on large surface ships, it is also important for India to build a powerful underwater force. The Indian Navy spent 430 billion rupees 's plan to build 6 AIP conventional submarines on the mainland is in trouble. The once-leading German company ThyssenKrupp said that some of the bidding requirements were too demanding and withdrew angrily. South Korea will become the only bidder.
In July this year, the Indian government formally approved the Navy’s "75" project, which has been delayed for nearly 10 years. It costs 500 billion rupees (about 7 billion U.S. dollars). However, for India, where the defense industry technology is weak, building the AIP submarine will be a long road full of twists and turns. Therefore, India once again chose a shortcut and decided to rely on foreign technology to develop its own AIP submarine project.
According to India's "Economic Times" report on September 9th, the Indian Navy's 6 AIP submarine project is once again at a deadlock. It is reported that Germany's ThyssenKrupp Group , which participated in the bidding, is dissatisfied with the relevant harsh conditions put forward by the Indian government. They said that if the Indian government repeatedly insists on its previous requirements, ThyssenKrupp will withdraw from the bidding. At the same time as the bad news came, people turned their attention to another bidding company, namely South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Ocean Engineering Group. According to their analysis, if Germany withdraws, Daewoo Group will become the only bidder.
According to the project requirements, the new submarine needs to have excellent stealth performance, which can significantly suppress the ability of noise and sound signal transmission; it needs to be equipped with an AIP system (not dependent on air propulsion power devices) to improve underwater endurance and Combat range: In addition to performing conventional anti-ship operations, the new submarine also needs to have the ability to strike vertical to land, that is, it can be equipped with BrahMos cruise missiles. After the project was approved, the Ministry of Defense of India delivered a bidding plan to the Larsen Tubo Shipyard, which was responsible for the implementation of specific projects and negotiations with foreign bidding companies.
After the bidding plan was issued, it immediately attracted bids from many countries, including Sweden's Saab Group, Germany's ThyssenKrupp Group, France's DCNS, Russia's Ruby Central Design Bureau, and South Korea's Daewoo Group . But what is puzzling is that shortly after the bidding plan was carried out, Russia, Sweden and France claimed that the project bid was unfair, and then chose to withdraw angrily. Only the German ThyssenKrupp Group and South Korea's Daewoo Group are nominated for the second round. Now, the German ThyssenKrupp Group is also facing the issue of staying and leaving. The reason is that the Indian government is behind this. The harsh conditions put forward.
First of all, in submarine construction, the Indian government put forward regulations, such as the first submarine's parts localization rate must reach 45%, as of the sixth submarine, the parts localization rate must be increased to 60 %. Secondly, the construction of all submarines will be carried out at the Larsentub Shipyard in India. The Indian government made a request for this, saying that in this process, the winning bidder must assume "almost unlimited" responsibilities. In other words, if any accident occurs during construction work, as long as the responsible party is not in India, the winning company must be held responsible. Finally, there is the problem of project funding. The six AIP submarines cost a total of 500 billion rupees, but according to the current situation, this amount has been reduced to 430 billion rupees (about 5.7 billion US dollars). The budget is too low, indicating a corresponding reduction in the revenue generated, and this has caused other bidding companies in other countries to withdraw. Similarly, these have also become obstacles for ThyssenKrupp Group to continue its cooperation with India. Although the Indian AIP submarine project is full of allure, but for ThyssenKrupp Group, there will be no conflict of interest. After all, they are businessmen and not come to India for "poverty alleviation" work. But this is not good news for South Korea's Daewoo Group. If once this order is won, it will mark the Korean submarine's next success after being exported to Indonesia. In contrast, South Korea’s military export practices and submarine technology may match the Indian government’s appetite.
The starting point of Korean submarine technology,Dating back to the 1980s, when it was at the peak of the " Han River miracle ", both the Korean government and the general public were full of confidence. But militarily, South Korea is facing constant strategic pressure from the north of the peninsula in the underwater direction. In view of this, South Korea decided to develop a submarine force. In 1980, South Korea and Italy reached a military procurement agreement and invested in the purchase of 8 SX-756 pocket submarines. This type of submarine has a displacement of 75 tons and a maximum dive depth of 40 meters. The boat is not equipped with torpedo tubes and is only used for tasks such as transporting personnel and laying mines. It is on this basis that South Korea imitated the construction of the "Dolphin" class submarine, but South Korea is not limited to this, so it turned its attention to Germany in Western Europe.
In 1985, South Korea and Germany reached a cooperation, costing nearly US$3 billion, and purchased nine 1,400-ton German-made Type 209 submarines, which South Korea named the "Zhang Baogao" class. With the addition of this boat, South Korea has a first-class combat submarine in the true sense. Similarly, the technology transfer from Germany also laid the foundation for South Korea's subsequent development and export of submarines. After entering the 21st century, South Korea spent another 4.32 billion U.S. dollars to purchase nine 1,800-ton 214 submarines from Germany, which South Korea named the "Sun Yuanyi" class. The AIP technology equipped with the power system of the boat has aroused strong interest among Koreans. As a result, the research and reverse imitation of AIP technology have been carried out in full swing.
In 2006, the Korean government launched the 3000-ton KSS-3 submarine project. The result was the "Dosan An Changho" launched at the Okpo Shipyard of Daewoo Group, Gyeongsangnam Province in September 2018. The boat has a maximum displacement of 3750 tons, an underwater endurance of about 3 weeks, and a maximum underwater speed of 20 knots. According to South Korea’s announcement, the localization rate of the boat has reached about 70%, but in key technical areas, such as AIP systems, fire control systems, surface sensing equipment, sonar detection devices, and other fields, it still relies on Western countries’ technology. So in the final analysis, the boat can be regarded as an elongated and enlarged version of the Type 214 submarine. The only bright spot is,The boat is equipped with 6 vertical launch devices, which can be equipped with a Xuanwu-2B ballistic missile with a range of 500 kilometers and a Xuanwu-3C cruise missile with a range of 1,500 kilometers. This has indeed improved South Korea’s underwater strategic strike power, but in Northeast Asia, these can be understood as better than nothing.
At the end of 2018, South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Project Management Bureau announced that South Korea has mastered the new lithium-ion battery technology, and Samsung SDI is responsible for its production. It is reported that the underwater endurance of submarines using new lithium batteries will be nearly doubled compared with similar submarines using lead-acid batteries. They also claimed that the new lithium battery will be applied to the "KSS-3" type submarine. As for the effect, there is no definite conclusion yet. But what is certain is that South Korea, which has always liked swollen faces and fat people, must have a lot of moisture in it.
In recent years, the military cooperation between South Korea and India can be said to be heating up, especially on the K-9 self-propelled artillery project. South Korea has won the Indian government and military with low prices, related technology transfer, and good after-sales service. The favor of the party. If the German company ThyssenKrupp withdraws, South Korea is likely to get a large order for 6 AIP submarines from India. But this is also full of many unstable factors. The first is AIP technology. Although South Korea claims to have mastered the relevant technology, the root of the problem is that South Korea’s AIP technology is not as good as Germany. Whether South Korea’s AIP technology can be seen by the Indian military is still full of suspense. According to Indian government regulations, all AIP technologies must pass the acceptance check to see if they meet expectations before they can be equipped with submarines.
Secondly, other core technologies of Korean submarines are still in the hands of Western countries. Whether the submarine can be exported to India as one wishes, South Korea has to go through their approval, and this is also uncertain. After all, compared with the K-9 self-propelled artillery , the core technology and profit margins of submarines are more important.
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