South Korea Could Export Submarines to Philippines

Nicky commented on November 5, 2019 in response to my South Korean DSME 2000 Concept Submarine, Specifications, Potential Customers article of November 4, 2019. My reply to Nicky just grew and grew. So I am making it into the following comment with links.

I think an assumption that the "Philippines can[not] afford submarines coming from South Korea or Europe" is dated. The Philippines is no longer a poor country reliant on very old second-hand vessels. For example, the Philippines has bought 2 NEW frigates from South Korea.

This is also noting South Korea's DSME Chang Bogos (Type 209 variants) would be far cheaper than future, larger and new battery technology, DSME 2000s.

If you look at this IMF Countries by Nominal  GDP in 2019 List  you'll see the Philippines (at US$347 Billion) is richer than:

-  Egypt (at US$302 Billion) - that has just bought new German Type 209 submarines

-  Chile (at US$294 Billion) that has 2 old German subs but 2 recent French Scorpene subs

-  Pakistan (at US$284 Billion) that has 5 French subs and buying 8 subs from China, and

-  much richer than Portugal (at US$236 Billion) and Greece (at US$214 Billion) that both have
   European subs.

I'd add that South Korea is a more efficient, lower cost submarine builder than Russia. “In 2011, South Korea beat Russia, France, and Germany in competition for a $1.1 billion tender to supply Indonesia with three [Chang Bogo] Type 209-class submarines.” 

Russia's Kilo submarine, approaching 4,000 tons full load, is large for a conventional sub, making it ill suited to the shallows and narrows of the Philippine archipelago. A Kilo is almost 3 times the size of a South Korean DSME Chang Bogo (1,400 tons) and about twice the size of a future DSME 2000 (2,180 tonnes).

Russia generally lacks the money to equal South Korea's soft loan enticements. Also Russia has a notoriously high cost, shoddy work submarine overhaul and weapons upgrade reputation. Just ask the Indians about how unreliable the Russian upgrade for India's Kilos subs was. This upgrade was to fit Klub anti-ship missiles to India's Kilos - with the missiles proving particularly unreliable.

Yes, as I indicated in the November 4, 2019 article, Chile and Argentina are possible buyers for DSME 2000s. Argentina has such old subs that they are unsafe, like the ARA San Juan, that sadly sank.

I don't know whether Columbia needs medium-large subs for their main role - which is anti-drug smuggler surveillance. See my 2015 article where Columbia, in 2015, acquired 2 small 500 ton Type 206s from Germany.

For more on the Philippines see my articles:

-  “Any US Block on Philippines BuyingSubmarines a Big Mistake” of 12 November 2019, and

-  "Submarine Choices for the Philippines" of November 14, 2019.

Pete

Video: DSME 2000 & KSS-III Submarines with Lithium-ion Batteries

Following November 4, 2019's DSME 2000 Concept Submarine, Specifications, Potential Customers below is a MADEX 2019 video (link) with a South Korean engineer commenting on the DSME 2000 and KSS-III. Then a Hanwha Defense representative provides details of the Lithium-ion batteries for submarines that DSME is using and marketing.

-  at 1 minute 10 seconds Xavier Vavasseur (Chief Editor, Naval News) with Jejun Park (Chief
   Engineer, South Korea's DSME) introduce the concept DSME 2000 submarine. At 2,000 tonnes it
   is a size between the DSME 1,400 tonne Chang Bogo (Type 2009 variant) exported to Indonesia
   and the 3,000 tonne KSS-III DSME is building for the South Korean Navy.

   The DSME 2000 will have the latest IT and Lithium-ion Batteries, an AC magnet motor and
   X-plane rudders. As it is a concept design it can be configured with  the foreign customer's choice
   of weapons [and presumably with the option of Fuel Cell AIP?].

-  5 mins 4 secs Jejun Park briefs Xavier about the KSS-III - with a KSS-III Batch 1 being
   launched on September 14, 2018. The KSS-III Batch 2s will have Lithium-ion Batteries which
   will increase fully submerged endurance by several days.

-  5 mins 47 secs display of the Lithium-ion Battery arrangement for the KSS-III Batch 2 (on which
   many DSME 2000 components will be based). Monnhee Kang of Hanwha Defense displays the
   contrast between:
   =   Lead-acid Batteries [eg. used for Australia's current and future subs] only having 2,000 "cycles"
        [a cycle being one semi-submerged, diesel engine battery recharging "snort"]. See reference.
   =   compared to Samsung SDI Lithium-ion Batteries that have twice the service life (that is up to
        4,000 cycles "or about 10 years of operational life").
   =   Monnhee points out a Samsung SDI Lithium-ion battery tray, each with 24 cells. With 100
        modules in the front of a KSS-III Batch 2 and 100 in the back. South Korea has been conducting
        land based tests of whole battery pack for submarine since 2016. South Korean industry reps
        indicated all has gone according to plan.

Pete

DSME 2000 Concept Submarine, Specifications, Potential Customers

Jane's Navy International and Naval News have both provided details of the “DSME 2000” medium sized diesel-electric concept submarine. It was displayed, around October 24, 2019 at the International Maritime Defense Industry Exhibition (MADEX) 2019 in Busan, South Korea.

South Korea's DSME 2000 is a concept (paper) submarine targeted for the export market, particularly to Southeast Asian and South American nations. 

Pete Comment 

Potential customers DSME may particularly be looking at are:
-  the Philippines (becoming relatively wealthy, modernising its fleet, has no submarines but wants to 
   acquire some) 
-  Chile (2 of its 4 subs are old, commissioned in 1984) 
-  Columbia (several very old submarines)
-  Argentina (its 2 active subs very old entering service in 1974 and 1984) 
-  also Mexico (in North America) is relatively wealthy but has no submarines. 

See list of Latin American countries by nominal GDP and GDP per capita - financial indicators on  whether they can afford new submarines. The above potential customer countries might mainly use subs for surveillance against non-state actors (drug, arms and people smugglers, pirates, illegal fishing, separatists and terrorists).

DSME 2000's Indicative Specifications  

Drawn from Jane's Navy International and Naval News.  Preliminary design work was completed by DSME in January 2019, but the final variant can be tailored (with varying specifications) according to customer requirements.

2,180 tonnes (submerged displacement) 
71.1m long
6.5 m beam, diameter 
single-hulled

20 knots (maximum submerged speed)
10 knots (maximum surface speed)

10,000 nautical miles at cruising speed

40 crew + 10 special forces or intelligence linguists/monitors

Lithium-ion batteries
[2+ diesel engines]

AC propulsion motor.
Lengthened version could incorporate an AIP plug

Incorporates a seven-mast configuration The masts suite includes optronic, radar, ESM, SATCOM, Snorkel and up to two communication hoistable masts. The sensor suite is based on Cylindrical Hydrophone Array, Intercept Detection and Ranging Sonar, Own Noise Analysis, Flank Array Sonar, Passive Ranging Sonar, Active Operation Sonar and Towed Array Sonar.

Flexible weapon launching system depending on customer requirements. Standard fitout can be 8 torpedo tubes with a total of 16 torpedoes/missiles/[UUVs] [or typically 32 mines].

Utilizes foreign technologies and local technologies developed for South Korea's KSS-III program. 

DSME’s new diesel-electric attack submarine concept targeted for the export market, DSME 2000. (Courtesy IHS Markit/M Boruah)

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DSME 2000 class submarine scale model at MADEX 2019. Blue "boxes" may depict combat system and propulsion computers/work stations and yellow boxes lithium-ion batteries 
(Courtesy Naval News)

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DSME 2000 design features a flexible weapon launching system. (Courtesy Naval News).

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Pete

Might Naval Group's New AIP be eventually used by India?

Following “Naval Group's 2nd Generation Fuel Cell AIP ready to be marketed"” of October 30, 2019 I deduce that India's DRDO AIP and Naval Group's new AIP are one and the same.

The following is an update of Indian DRDO's progress on land testing a Fuel Cell AIP system (in part to retrofit on India's Naval Group (was DCNS) designed Kalvari class Scorpenes). 

This just happens to be occurring at the same time as land testing of Naval Group's 2nd Generation Fuel Cell "AIP FC-2G" (in part to retrofit on Scorpenes).  Scorpenes have been sold by, what is now  Naval Group, to Chile, Malaysia, Brazil and India.

See Xavier Vavasseur's, Naval News update article of 31 Oct 2019 at https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2019/10/indias-aip-system-gets-boost-with-operation-of-land-based-prototype/

"India’s AIP System Gets Boost With Operation Of Land-Based Prototype"

"India's fuel cell-based Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system has crossed several milestones in technology maturity, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has announced.

The DRDO is an agency of the Government of India, charged with the military’s research and development. India’s AIP system will eventually be fitted aboard all Kalvari-class submarines...

...As previously reported, Naval Group India engineers are already working with the DRDO for the integration of an Indian designed [?] AIP module...."

PETE COMMENT

National and organizational pride and high budget justifications are such that every part of a submarine can be claimed as locally invented/indigenous if at all plausible.

Pete

Swarms of Chinese Mini-UUVs Threatening Aussie Submarines

On October 29, 2019 news came to hand in Australia's Blue Moutains Gazette (see https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/6465062/new-sub-could-be-google-maps-for-the-ocean/?cs=9397 )

of a mini-unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) that can operate in swarms "Not only...to discover new species of marine life and track climate change, but in time...to optimise search and rescue operations, locate wreckages and black boxes, and much more."

Melbourne (Australia) mini-UUV.  (Photo courtesy Blue Moutains Gazette )

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Pete Comment

This invention could carry small sonars. This invention and others like it, being developed in China, Japan, the US, UK and Europe could operate in swarms to detect submarines - making submarines an obsolete, increasingly vulnerable technology. 

Think of a flotilla 20 low cost Chinese "trawlers" all peacefully "catching fish", but actually acting as a "mother-ship" each for 200 Chinese low-cost mass produced mini-UUVs. So that equals 4,000 UUVs per flotilla. 

These flotillas can be assisted by the fixed seabed and tethered anti-submarine sonar sensors China is already stringing across East Asian seas.

Such a flotilla can operate in entirely flexible reconfigurable ways, particularly to track very slow moving (when fully submerged) Australian conventional submarines (SSKs) eg. by being strung in front of, behind and even around an Australian SSK in a tightening sonar net.

Or consider several 4,000 UUV flotillas all mothered by plausibly fishing low cost Chinese trawlers being strung in-line across the East China Sea or South China Sea for months to track and ensnare Japanese, Singaporean or South Korean SSKs.

The possibilities are endless, cheap and can occur in peacetime - no need for expensive naval assets. 

They can "cue" naval assets to easily destroy our submarines, if and when conflict breaks out.

Pete 

Naval Group's 2nd Generation Fuel Cell AIP "ready to be marketed"

A French friend drew the following to my attention. Here is part of Vincent Groizeleau's Mer et Marine (all the maritime news), September 27, 2019, article (which I have translated from French and bolded some bits) at https://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/sous-marins-le-nouvel-aip-de-naval-group-tient-ses-promesses :

“Submarines: Naval Group's new AIP delivers on its promises”

Naval Group's development of an Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system for submarines based on a new generation of fuel cells passed a crucial milestone this year. The ground system of the Naval Group's, installed at its Indret site, close to Nantes [in France], indeed worked for 18 days in conditions representative of a real patrol. "It was a question of closely checking the functioning of the system with a profile of operational use, as well as the autonomy of diving. For 18 days, the system, connected to batteries (to be representative of actual use on a submarine) produced electricity from diesel fuel, operating at high pressure, which means that it does not limit diving depth.

[The were simulations of] Transits, very slow speeds, accelerations, fast surface rises, stops of the AIP followed by restarting, management of a possible breakdown or damage ... As on a real submarine, the system was confronted with situations to validate its performance and reliability.

...Called AIP FC-2G (Fuel Cell Second Generation - FC-2G), this system has required a decade of research. Technologically, it includes two main innovations. First, the hydrogen used for fuel cell operation is manufactured directly on board, via a chemical reforming process from diesel fuel used by diesel-generators. This process provides increased security through the absence of hydrogen storage on board. The exhaust fumes are discarded discreetly, since they dissolve instantly in the water. In parallel, Naval Group has designed a patented system to produce air by injecting nitrogen into the oxygen inlet of the cell, this oxygen is stored in cryogenic form in a tank. Synthetic air reacts with hydrogen in the fuel cell to produce electricity, which powers the submarine's batteries and the electric propulsion motor. The battery is confined in a closed and ventilated enclosure to control a possible leakage of hydrogen or oxygen.

Principle of the device [above] (© NAVAL GROUP)

1: the reformer is used to produce hydrogen from diesel fuel

2: the component is used to increase the hydrogen yield and eliminate the carbon monoxide produced

    by the reformer

3: Purification membranes feed fuel cells with ultra-pure hydrogen

4: Fuel cells produce electricity from hydrogen and oxygen

5: the tank stores oxygen in liquid form

...Standalone operation or in tandem with batteries

Designed for a lifespan of 10,000 hours, the fuel cell has a capacity of 250 kW. It feeds the electrical plant when the submarine is in AIP mode, thus allowing the electric propulsion motor to run and provides for the [submarine's hotel load power needs]. The submarine can rely on this AIP system alone at a speed of up to about 5 knots, knowing that to obtain a range of three weeks in diving, the use profile varies between 2 and 4 knots. To do this, the power required for the AIP FC-2G is between 130 and 180 kW. Beyond that, you have to tap into the batteries, the passage from one energy source to another being done without interruption. 

Many advantages over other systems

Architecturally, the Naval Group AIP FC-2G has a considerable advantage over existing AIP systems (that store hydrogen in external tanks, posing weight problems (ie. 130 to 160 tons of hydrides of which less than 2% is usable hydrogen) and other AIP systems refueling problems). Fuel cells currently in service use, in addition, pure oxygen, which generates high wear, with filters and membranes needing to be replaced very regularly. AIP FC-2G is more efficient, according to Naval Group, as AIP FC-2G offers (according to its designers) duration of use between each major maintenance approximately five times higher than that of its foreign competitors. "Our system really fits into the operational scheme of a submarine. It only requires a short interruption of three weeks each year - the only equipment to be changed during this maintenance period being the catalysts. In the meantime, there is nothing to do! Says Marc Quémeneur [AIP product manager at Naval Group].

Finally, the choice of hydrogen production from diesel fuel facilitates refueling and storage (single fuel on the submarine) while improving safety compared to systems using, for example, methanol, which are more flammable and introduce toxic products in case of leakage.

The device fully integrated in a standalone module

Like MESMA, (the first AIP developed by the French group and which equips Pakistan’s Agosta 90Bs) the entire AIP FC-2G system is grouped in a single module, autonomous from the rest of the submarine. The system is housed in a hull section about 8 meters long integrated into the submarine  from the beginning or added after overhaul with a minimum of modifications to the submarine. AIP FC-2G is adaptable to submarines with a diameter of at least 6 meters, such as Scorpene or the conventional propulsion version of the Barracuda. AIP FC-2G is obviously designed not to impact overall performance, starting with diving depth and acoustic discretion.

...AIP FC-2G is therefore "ready to be marketed" and already proposed by Naval Group to a number of navies. 

...While AIP FC-2G has been tested with traditional lead-acid batteries, Naval Group is also working on integration with submarines using lithium-ion battery technology, which will expand operational performance. ENDS
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See Vincent Groizeleau's full Mer et Marine report, with more illustrations, here https://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/sous-marins-le-nouvel-aip-de-naval-group-tient-ses-promesses 

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Pete Comment

Naval Group may well have timed this article with a view to India's Project 75I competition for 6 submarines with AIP. Also the Dutch Walrus submarine replacement competition may require AIP. Australia, building 12 conventional propulsion versions of the Barracuda (known as the Attack class) may also decide on AIP for the first or later batches.

Current users of Naval Group Scorpenes (Chile, Malaysia, India and Brazil) might perhaps also decide to retrofit their Scorpenes with AIP FC-2G.