Power super submarine nicknamed ‘F-22 under the ocean’

Quietly operating without noise to avoid detection, equipped with modern electronic equipment and a powerful arsenal, the German-made Type-212A is the most powerful non-nuclear submarine in the world.

German Type -212A non-nuclear submarines can make a wide range of missions, from anti-submarine warfare to anti-ship combat; assists special forces in surveillance and reconnaissance operations. Until now, Type-212A nicknamed “F-22 under the ocean” is the most modern and most powerful non-nuclear submarine in the world, they outperform the submarines in the same segment manufactured by other countries. create. The power of Type-212A submarines comes from three factors, the first is the stable operation and does not emit noise that makes them almost “invisible” under the ocean, second they are equipped with electrical equipment. modern death and finally a powerful arsenal. In the early 1990s, the German Navy sought a new submarine based on the improved Type 209 design, using an air-dependent propulsion (AIP) engine. The program officially began in 1994, when the German and Italian navies jointly developed a new conventional submarine, operating in the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea and the deeper waters of the Mediterranean. The two rather different requirements of the two countries were finally reconciled in a new design, eventually the new submarine with the Type-212A designation was officially born. On April 22, 1996, a memorandum of understanding kicked off the cooperation of building four identical ships to facilitate logistics and operations. In 1998, the German Government placed an order for the construction of four Type-212As at Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) and Thyssen Nordseewerke GmbH (TNSW) of Emden. That same year, the Italian Government also ordered two submarines of this type. The German Navy ordered two additional refurbished submarines in 2006, delivered since 2012. These two are longer than 1.2 meters to allow more space for a new reconnaissance mast. In 2008, the Italian Navy ordered a second batch of submarines with similar configurations to the original ones. Some of the upgrades involve materials and software packages to reduce maintenance costs. In 2015, Italy announced plans to build two more. The Type-212A is a diesel-electric submarine that uses an AIP air-independent propulsion system, the first to be added to a Siemens proton-exchange membrane compression hydrogen fuel cell. It can travel at high speeds on diesel power or switch to the AIP system for slow and silent diving, and can stay underwater for up to three weeks, with little heat generation. When using AIP engines, they produce very low noise and diving times can be up to 3 consecutive weeks, far exceeding the maximum diving time of the Russian Kilo 636 or French Scorpene submarines. The drivetrain is also said to be vibrating, extremely quiet, and almost undetectable. Type 212A is approximately 57.2 m long and 6.4 m high; ships with diesel engine 1 MTU 16V 396; has a displacement of 1,524 tons when floating and 1,830 tons when diving; reaching speeds of 22 km / h when floating and 37 km / h when diving, a range of 15,000 km (at speed of 15 km / h); can dive for up to 12 weeks if using a snorkel; crew of 27 members. The tail is arranged with the letter “X” to help the ship rotate quite quickly under the ocean. Another notable design feature is the cross-section of the prismatic hull and a smooth transition from the hull to the sail, improving the stealth of the ship. The ship and its interior structures are made of non-magnetic materials, greatly reducing its chances of being detected by a navy’s magnetometer or magnetic mine. In addition, Type -212A is constructed from non-magnetic steel making it completely invisible to magnetic detectors (MAD) mounted on submarines, hunting aircraft and hunting helicopters. In other words, Type-212A submarines are completely immune to MAD equipment of the US, NATO or Russia. In tests, they can dive to a depth of 700 meters. With these features, the Type 212 outperforms the Russian Kilo 636 black hole or other Western ships of the same class. Weapons on the Type-212A submarine include 8 533 mm torpedo tubes. The catapult that can fire the optical fiber guided torpedo is DM2A4 together with the Blackshark torpedo. This torpedo has a range of 50 km, a top speed of 92.6 km / h. Future possibilities may be integrated cruise missiles The Type-212A is also equipped with an IDAS low-to-air missile system to combat low-range airborne threats. Short-range IDAS missiles (based on IRIS-T missiles) are primarily used to counter air threats as well as sea or land-based, or small, targets, developed by Diehl BGT Defense to fired from the Type 212A’s torpedo tubes. The IDAS is fiber-guided and has a range of about 20 km. A 30 mm automatic cannon called the Muräne to aid divers’ operations or to fire warning is also under consideration for an addition to the Type-212A submarine. The cannon, which could be a version of the RMK30 built by Rheinmetall, will be housed in a retractable mast that can be fired without the ship having to float. With a special design, it can operate in water depths only 17m and has 3 launchers for 3UAV reconnaissance. That allows it to get close to shore that no other submarine has been able to do yet. In the near future, Germany is planning to bring a longer range cruise missile to the Type 212A submarines.