Singapore’s Type-218SG – Forerunner of a new Submarine Class?

Singapore is likely to expand the missions and operational capabilities of its submarine force in the next decade, fielding large ocean going submarines with mission endurance of weeks, even months in the next decade. Sofar the island state operated much smaller subs, designed for operations in shallow waters and littorals closer to home. The Defense ministry of Singapore announced this week it has ordered two new ‘Type 218SG’ submarines from the German-based ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).

The 218SG is a customized design from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. TKMS did not provide much detail about the specification of the ‘Type 218’ submarine, hitherto an unknown designation, although the company mentioned the submarines would be fitted out with ‘air independent propulsion’ (AIP) from the baseline (unlike the Archers, that had to be cut apart to ‘plug in’ the AIP). The new submarine will be customized to address specific requirements of the Singapore Navy. Among those systems will be a comprehensive combat system provided by Atlas Elektronik GmbH, to be co-developed and adapted to the customer requirements by Singapore based ST Electronics.

German industry experts commenting about the deal said the project would cost about one billion Euros and is expected to take six years to complete. The first submarine will be delivered to the Singapore Navy in 2020.

Singapore is already operating two Archer Class submarines modified by the Swedish Kockums shipyard to meet the requirements of the Singapore Navy. Kockums, now a subsidiary of TKMS, built both Archer and Challenger, both designed for littoral, shallow sea operations.