{"id":24227,"date":"2025-05-15T21:34:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T18:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=24227"},"modified":"2025-05-15T21:34:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T18:34:04","slug":"german-submarine-type-212cd-new-technologies-in-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=24227","title":{"rendered":"German Submarine Type 212CD: New technologies in focus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the DEFEA 2025 exhibition, the stand of the German company TKMS (ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems) featured a mock-up of the company’s new product, the Type 212CD (Common Design) submarine, a design that is proposed for the Hellenic Navy’s new submarine program. ThyssenKrupp was selected to design the new submarine, meeting the requirement for new submarines for the Norwegian and German navies. The new design meets the operational requirements of the two navies and the new submarines are expected to replace the existing U-212A and Ula, respectively, upon their entry into service. The two countries signed a contract on July 8, 2021 with TKMS for \u20ac5.5 billion for the acquisition of six U-212CDs, two for Germany and four for Norway, while on December 19, 2024, the German parliament approved the acquisition of four more submarines at a cost of approximately \u20ac4.7 billion. Accordingly, the Norwegian side stated in June 2024 the need to extend the order by two more submarines. If the options of the two navies are contracted, the class will consist of 12 units in total. Construction of the first submarine began in 2023 and the first submarine is expected to be delivered to Norway in 2029. Germany will receive its two submarines in 2032 and 2034 respectively. The construction of all submarines will take place at ThyssenKrupp’s facilities in Kiel, but it is noteworthy to mention that the service and repair base will be in southern Norway where all of the two countries’ submarines will be chartered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Type 212 CD will be around 74 meters long with a hull diameter of 7.5 meters, a height of 13 meters and a displacement on the surface that will reach 2600 tons and when submerged approximately 3000 tons. The crew will consist of 30 officers and non-commissioned officers. The construction material is non-magnetic steel. As in the U-212A, the choice of this particular material offers specific advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that it offers the submarine safety against magnetic mines while the main disadvantage is that it offers a relatively small maximum operational depth to the submarine. The Type 212 CD, like the U-212A, are two submarines whose main area of \u200b\u200boperations is the Baltic and the North Atlantic. In the Baltic Sea, the average depth is 55 meters and the maximum is 459 meters, while there are thousands of mines from World War II that have not yet been removed. This is the main reason why non-magnetic steel is chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main design feature is that the manufacturer has adopted a diamond-shaped hull which, according to ThyssenKrupp, will have unparalleled stealth capabilities. There are two main threats from enemy sonar that the submarine will have to face. On the one hand, active sonars emit noise and receive signals from echoes when they \u201creturn\u201d from the submarine. On the other hand, passive sonars simply receive any returns from sounds emitted by the submarine, such as pumps, engines, and even the flow of water above the surface. For years, passive sonar was considered the king of underwater warfare because it did not give away the submarine’s position. However, as submarines have become much quieter, the effectiveness of passive sonar has diminished. To detect the quietest submarines, active sonar may be required. Therefore, being difficult to detect with active sonar can provide a tactical advantage. A typical submarine hull with a cylindrical cross-section reflects incoming sonar waves from almost every direction. However, a flat surface will reflect sound in a different direction from that of the source. This is the same basic principle used in stealth aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The propulsion system will be a combination of electric generators, an AIP system and batteries. This combination gives the submarine “nuclear propulsion” characteristics due to the ability of the submarine to remain submerged for a long time without the need to surface at periscope depth to recharge the batteries. Indicatively, a submarine equipped with AIP can operate for a sufficient period of time of two to three weeks. The propulsion system consists of a latest-generation Siemens Permasyn electric motor, two MTU diesel generators, an AIP system with fourth-generation hydrogen PEM Fuel Cells also from Siemens and battery packs with the ability to integrate new generation lithium-ion batteries. The steering system is of the X type, ideal for shallow and limited waters, while the diving fins are mounted on the tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The submarine’s CMS is ORCCA, developed by the KTA Naval Systems consortium, which is a partnership of Kongsberg, TKMS and STN Atlas Elektronik. According to KTA Naval System, ORCCA is a new fourth-generation combat management system that is fully digital and integrates all the main functions of the submarine. It consists of workstations with 32-inch screens and 4K resolution, with fully interchangeable functions so that from each workstation the crew can perform all the functions of the submarine. The Type 212CD combat system will support the following functions: Situational awareness, track management, target movement analysis, weapons control, combat system overview, communications, navigation, classification and recording \/ replay and training.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Functional analysis of the ORCCA combat system of KTA Naval Systems<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kongsberg of Norway has been selected to provide the mine avoidance and navigation system. The Kongsberg package includes the SA9510S MKII, Mine Avoidance and Navigation Sonars (MANS) and a submarine navigation system (BNS) containing EM2040 MIL multi-beam echo sounder as well as an EA640 echo sounder suite. HENSOLDT\u2019s optics division has been responsible for providing the electro-optical mast. The initial order includes six optronic systems, consisting of an OMS 150 mast optronic system, an OMS 300 and an i360\u00b0OS panoramic surveillance system for each of the six submarines of the Norwegian and German navies. The combination of OMS 150 and OMS 300 is being put into operation for the first time for the U212 CD class. The OMS 150, in its multi-spectral version, will be used as an optical search and surveillance mast. The stealth optronic mast OMS 300 will assume the so-called “attack” function. The Type 212 CD will be equipped with an Indra X-band radar, a dual continuous wave radar that includes a high-precision and low-interception detection pulse. It is a digitized solid-state system with flexibility and high frequency bandwidth, capable of detecting targets with low radar cross-section in the worst conditions of electromagnetic noise environment and resisting interference attempts by enemy systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main weapons of the Type 212 CD are the heavy 533 mm torpedoes which are placed in six torpedo tubes. The special thing about the torpedo tube arrangement is that they are all placed on the port side of the bow in two rows of three. The total number of weapons carried is not confirmed but according to information it amounts to 13 to 14-15 different weapons (torpedoes, NSM missiles and IDAS system missiles). In the near future, in addition to torpedoes, it will be able to put submarine-launched missiles, which in the future will apparently be a submarine-launched version of the Kongsberg NSM anti-ship missile as well as the IDAS (Interactive Defence & Attack System) system which is being developed jointly by ThyssenKrupp and Diehl Defence for defence and attack of the submarine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IDAS uses a solid-fuel missile with a range exceeding 15 km and is equipped with an IIR seeker and a fiber-optic data link that allows the operator to extract data and select targets. IDAS can engage low-flying aircraft and helicopters as well as ships and land targets. A number of IDAS missiles are mounted on a single carrier. The arrangement uses one of the existing 533 mm torpedo tubes on the submarine carrier. Development of this system has been completed and acceptance tests have already been carried out on a German Navy U-212A submarine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the DEFEA 2025 exhibition, the stand of the German company TKMS (ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems) featured a mock-up of the company’s new product, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1808],"tags":[6915,6916,6917,6921,6918,138,139,6919,6924,6922,6920,6200,6923],"class_list":["post-24227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defense-space","tag-atlas-elektronik","tag-dm2a4","tag-kongsberg","tag-kta","tag-naval-systems","tag-navy","tag-submarines","tag-submarines-209","tag-submarines-214","tag-thyssenkrupp","tag-thyssenkrupp-marine-systems","tag-tkms","tag-type-212-cd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24230,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24227\/revisions\/24230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}