Despite the tight budget situation, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is apparently planning to purchase four new submarines with AIP propulsion from manufacturer Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).
For the planned purchase of the U212CD submarines for the German Navy (-> current news about the Bundeswehr), Pistorius is submitting a proposal for an initial 4.7 billion euros. However, the total cost, including accessories, shore facilities and any modifications – this is a process that takes years – could ultimately add up to more than seven billion euros. According to a member of the budget committee, the ministry has already submitted change requests amounting to around 2.44 billion euros.
As the planned expenditure is not yet included in the 2024 financial budget (in Germany, there is currently not even a “supplementary budget” for the year that is coming to an end), Pistorius wants to finance the project via a surplus expenditure and spread over several years. His department is now hoping that the CDU/CSU will give their approval for the project, as the SPD and Greens no longer have their own majority in the Bundestag Budget Committee following the premature end of the so-called “traffic light government” with the FDP.
This was an “unforeseen need, as at the time the budget was adopted, the changes to the NATO-defense plans and the NATO capability goal assigned to Germany had not yet been determined”, the Ministry of Defense stated in a commentary on the otherwise classified submission to the committee. It also describes the additional submarines as “temporally and objectively unavoidable”, because “without them, Germany cannot meet the new NATO requirements for better protection of the Alliance’s northern flank”. According to the NATO capability goals, the German Navy is to have at least five operational submarines from 2031.
Type 212CD is already real
The German Navy currently operates the five boats U31 (the first boat with fuel cell hybrid propulsion) to U36 of type 212A in the flotilla in Eckernförde, which entered service in 2005 and 2016. Militär Aktuell has been on site three times so far and has also already taken part in the “212” simulator. According to experts, the German boats are among the best API boats (non-nuclear, but with fuel cell propulsion independent of external air) in the world.
In addition to the existing fleet, the German Navy has already ordered two submarines of the enlarged and now desired 212CD version from TKMS. In the project with two internal decks, Germany is cooperating with Norway, which has also ordered four submarines of the same type. After the contract was signed in summer 2021, the long design process followed. The German-Norwegian project organization JPO reviewed more than 100,000 pages of documents over three years to ensure that the design meets the almost 6,000 requirements of the contract. According to the Norwegian Ministry of Defense, this design work accounts for almost 25 percent of the total cost of the six submarines (two German and two Norwegian).
After the Critical Design Review was completed on schedule in Junethe focus is now entirely on building the boats. If proven in tests, innovations such as a battery system based on lithium iron phosphate cells could already be used; these will be equipped with power electronics and interconnected to form batteries. Lithium-iron phosphate chemistry is considered to be significantly more stable and therefore safer than other chemical cell compositions. The first U 212CD is scheduled to begin testing in 2027 and be delivered to the Norwegian Navy in 2029. Delivery of the first boat for Germany is planned for 2032. And according to current plans, this will be followed by four more boats.
Submarine attacks difficult to attribute
The German Navy emphasizes in its target picture “Course Navy 2035+” emphasizes the increasing importance of underwater warfare: “The underwater sub-dimension is rapidly gaining in importance. Modern submarines and other underwater vehicles can cause enormous damage. Even in peacetime, because underwater attacks on civilian and military targets are difficult to attribute to a perpetrator.” Although this also applies to more cost-effective acts of sabotage on critical maritime infrastructure, Europe has so far deliberately avoided getting involved in state-controlled sabotage operations – both legally and strategically. The reason for this is that Europe has not yet defined a state between peace and war.
The Ministry of Defense recently submitted a total of 29 of these so-called 25-million-euro proposals to the Budget Committee for approval. This regulation, introduced in the 1990s, obliges the committee to approve all procurement projects of the Ministry of Defense worth 25 million euros or more individually. “This is already necessary for socks and uniforms,” criticizes Söhnke Neitzel, the renowned military historian at the University of Potsdam. He is in favor of only applying this regulation to major projects such as the procurement of F-35 fighter jets or submarines in the future.
Prominent German Youtuber and military blogger Torsten Heinrich goes even further and calls for the approval template to be limited exclusively to submarines, especially when it comes to new builds for the navy (see video above).
Here for further reports on the Bundeswehr.
