By Chief Editor .
Published on 23 September 2009, last updated 23 September 2009.
Singapore is a wise buyer of submarines: it has purchased opportunity submarines built by Kockums and has upgraded them. However, it is unlikely that Singapore buys again from this constructor since it was purchased by competitor, HDW, a German company.
Lancement de l’Archer en juin 2009
It is possible however that Singapore soon grabs another opportunity to buy 2 0-miles U-214 submarines, equipped with an Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system, with advantageous financial conditions. It is indeed possible that 4 U-214 are put up for sale on the world market because of the difficulties between Greece and the parent company of HDW: TKMS.
Along Australia, Singapore is one of the closest allies of the United States in the South-East Asia / Pacific region. Singapore is also on good terms with India, but is a little worried about facing large neighbours as Indonesia and Malaysia, and a little further on, China.
Previous purchases of submarines by Singapore
In 1995, Singapore Navy purchased a submarine, class Challenger, from the Swedish Navy (class Sjöormen), and then 3 others in 1997. It was the first submarine for this Navy. As the submarines had been developed by the Swedish company for navigation in the cold waters of the Baltic, several changes were made to suit tropical waters. The comprehensive program of tropicalisation conducted on 4 submarines included air conditioning installation, as well as corrosion-resistant pipelines.
It seems that the Challenger class submarines were purchased to develop the expertise needed to underwater operations before choosing a modern class of submarines to replace them with, since the submarines have all been launched at the end of the 1960s.
The Ministry of defence of Singapore has retained its relations with Kockums. In November 2005, signed an agreement with Kockums for the provision of 2 submarines of the Archer class (which had sailed in Sweden as Västergötland). Launched in the middle of the 1980s, and set aside by the Swedish Navy submarine, it will be transferred to Singapore after modernisation and conversion for operations in tropical waters.
Source: Le portail de sous-marins
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