Naval Group LIBs Possible for India & Indonesia

Pete Comment

In late 2018 Naval Group was offering Lithium-ion Batteries (LIBs) for its Scorpene and presumably for the now cancelled Attack class submarines.

India, eyeing submarine LIBs developments in late 2020 put out a Request for Information (RFI) for submarine. 

In February 2022 it is understood the 2 Scorpenes Naval Group may supply to Indonesia incorporate LIBs technology. 

LTO and NCA LIBs may be preferred by Japan for submarines - see SM on this.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Anonymous kindly commented on August 16, 2022:

European suppliers all have an offer LIBs technology for submarine. The preferred technology in Europe is the Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) aka LFP. For details of LFP see Battery University and here and here. There is the LIBs pioneered by Saft and also recently by FAAM for the Italian Type 212NFS.

Snapshot of the qualities of a typical LFP battery.
(Diagram courtesy Battery University)
---

Naval Group, TKMS and Navantia all have agreements with Saft. The LFP system is intrinsically safe, with a long life (2000+ cycles) flat discharge curve and rapid charge. Selected by Tesla, BMW, aircraft, LFP does not use exotic materials such as Mn, Ni or Co. It will likely dominate the automotive market on a large scale

LFP is lower in Specific Energy density but higher in Specific Power density than Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LiCoO2) aka LCO or similar technology used by Japanese and South Korean cars. LCO requires an extensive safety and battery management system and is essentially a scale up of consumer electronics market items (eg. mobile phones). 

To fully exploit the rapid charge (low indiscretion ratio) nature of submarine LIBs very large, powerful, diesel engines are required. 

With Lead-acid Batteries a submarine might need to recharge every 2 or 3 days but with LIBs high speed recharging every 5 to 7 days is possible. 

[Pete comment: Although submarine commanders may prefer more frequent recharging to keep their batteries "topped up". This is in case rapid escape from threats or prolonged submergence in high threat areas (like the South China Sea) is required.]