December 6, 2017

With Few Spares Germany's 6 Submarines Are Broken "Kaputt"

As the seagull says - its interesting that since October 2017 none of the German Navy's fleet of six Type 212A submarines seem to be available for operations. 

Drawing from a report of October 20, 2017 by Sebastian Sprenger for DefenseNews

“Navy officials blame bottlenecks in the procurement of spare parts for the submarines’ downtime. While a comprehensive package of spare parts was a key aspect of any new acquisition during the Cold War, cost-saving measures adopted since then have resulted in parts no longer being kept in reserve....”

Of the German Navy’s 6 subs “U-Boote”:

U-31  is being overhauled at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard until December 2017 or is that 2018
          Is U-31 operational yet?
U-32  is out of service, awaiting a maintenance spot at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard
U-33  is being overhauled at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard until February 2018
U-34  is out of service, awaiting a maintenance spot at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard
U-35  was moved into TKMS shipyard at Kiel after an X-plane rudder blade was damaged during a
          diving manoeuvre off Norway on October 15, 2017. Damage to be repaired by?

U-36  is being overhauled at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard until May 2018

GERMAN SOURCES

Germany's shz.de online on October 20, 2017 reported once translated into English:
"SPARE PARTS BOTTLENECK: Marine misery: Germany's submarines are all broken" (in German the article says "kaputt"). To translate this German language article Right-click mouse, then "Translate to English". 

As at December 2, 2017 the situation does not appear to have improved https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/deutsche-u-boote-101.html

Are any of Germany's submarines available or operational as of December 6, 2017?

Pete

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

One last (the 7th) German submarine is still operational. :-)

Hope is not lost

http://www.hisutton.com/Euronaut.html

Pete said...

Thanks Anonymous

I understand the Euronaut minisub http://www.hisutton.com/Euronaut.html can

potentially carry a crew of 5

Maybe one psycho (with a hacksaw) and one female journalist?

Regards

Pete

Anonymous said...

Spares are equally scarce for specific US warplanes like the B-1B. Not just spares, USAF is short of 2000 pilots and 4000 mechanics. All these do not add to a pretty picture.
For the current show of force over the Korean peninsula, 1 of the 2 B-1Bs ran into technical problems and could not participate. Operations over the ME are wearing down all these planes.
Ditto for one F22. Even one F35 lost one of its stealth panel over Okinawa (plenty of good and bad folks must be searching for it).
KQN

Anonymous said...

Hi Pete

Because of budget deficit for denfense and old facility of submarine building in Germany, development of new submarine with methanol reforming fuel cell will be delayed. Until that time, hydrogen cylinders will be used for fuel cell AIP submarine. Recent tragedy of Argentina submarine has proven awfulness of hydrogen explosion. Safety of LABs and/or fuel cell AIP should be reviewed, especially, for submarines equipped with two hydrogen sources, i.e., LABs and fuel cell, and for submarines equipped with recycled LABs.

Regards

Anonymous said...

How could Norwegian buy U212a submarines...?
Deutsche qualität!

Anonymous said...


Hi Pete

Norway and Germany are going to product new submarine 212 CD (Common Design) based on 212A.

“According to TKMS, the class 212CD will combine the low signatures of the class 212A with extended range, speed and endurance to allow worldwide operations.” [1]

“…..it is planned that six identical submarines of the new class 212 CD will be procured. Four receive the Norwegians, two the Germans. The 1st submarine squadron currently has six Class 212A boats. Through the cooperation with the Norwegians, the fleet can be increased to eight submarines. The first new addition is scheduled for 2027.” [2]



Increase in speed may be achieved by reduction of hydrodynamic resistance and increase in propulsion power. As 212CD is based on 212A in which reduction of hydrodynamic resistanc has already achieved, propulsion power will increase.
Possible measures are adoption of high power propulsion motor and LIBs. As 212A equips with Siemens Permasyn Motor of 2MW, adoption of more powerfull Premasyn Motor (such as the one of 4MW for 214 subs) may be considered. Because output of fuel cell is low, Lithium Iron Phosphate LIBs may be adopted to supply high power.


One diesel generator system for 212A provides miniaturization of submarine in the Baltic Sea but has issues of low power and failure of diesel for real world wide use. Two diesel generator sytem is better to address these issues. Maintance of diesel is only conducted in dock but also in operation such as snorkeling, maintainability is important. One MUT does not seem to generate enough electricity for LIBs. Trade off of one and two generators system is as follows:

Current beam (6.8m)/ one generator [low power]
Current beam (6.8m)/ parallel two generators [bad maintainability]
Current beam (6.8m)/ tandem two generators [extended length]
Wider beam/ parallel two generators [redesign]


[1] https://navaltoday.com/2017/11/01/tkms-kongsberg-jv-kta-naval-systems-will-be-delivering-new-type-212-cd-submarine-combat-systems/

[2]http://www.kn-online.de/News/Nachrichten-aus-Eckernfoerde/Deutsche-und-norwegische-Marine-beschliessen-U-Boot-Zusammenarbeit

Regards

Pete said...

More on the rundown of Germany's submarine service http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/germany-does-not-have-one-working-submarine-23688

Page 2 of http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/germany-does-not-have-one-working-submarine-23688 reveals Germany is similarly suffering low availability in its
- Leopard 2 tank
- A400M transport, and
- Tornado strike jet
units.

Pete said...

Hi Anonymous

Thanks for your "Norway and Germany are going to product new submarine 212 CD..." comments.

I'll use them for an article on Wednesday 20 December about Norways's likely 212CD design features.

Regards

Pete

Anonymous said...

Hi Pete

Former comment on generator of 212CD is reviewed based on the opinion of German Navy that miniaturization is a key concept of German submarine. 212CD will equip with one diesel generator, not two, and it may be LIBs-oriented MTU 12V 4000 instead of current MTU 16V396 [1]. I also expect adoption of methanol reforming fuel cell. Common design and procurement scheme of 212CD will provide reduction in its life long cost.


[1] http://www.tognum.com/fileadmin/fm-dam/tognum/press/2011/MTU_Submarine_Charging_Unit_12V_4000.pdf
“A submarine charging unit with a 12V 4000 submarine engine does have smaller dimensions compared to a 16V 396 SE design. However, the mechanical power is noticeably increased to 1,300 kilowatts (kW) at 1,800 rpm.”
“Another major design objective was the reduction of the specific fuel consumption in combination with greater operating flexibilities for different scenarios.”
“The new engine footfor Series 4000 includes an integrated shock limiter. Its compact and easy to install design results in very low effects of the foot’s dynamic behavior on the structure-borne noise signature of the engine.”

Regards

Pete said...

The following has much more information as to why Germany's 6 Type 212As are unavailable http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/17140/almost-all-of-the-uks-surface-combatants-are-in-port-while-germany-has-no-working-subs

Pete said...

I wish the Type 212As a quick recovery over Christmas :)