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China's CSIC Unveils Three New Submarine Designs for Export

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Naval Industry News - China
 
 
 
China's CSIC Unveils Three New Submarine Designs for Export
 
Chinese shipbuilding group China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) unveiled three new submarine designs at the Defense & Security 2017 defense exhibition held last week in Bangkok. The three designs are dedicated to the export market as they were showcased by the export arm of CSIC: China Shipbuilding and Offshore International Company (CSOC).
     
CSIC submarine defense security thailand 2017 1The full range of submarines on CSIC stand at Defense & Security 2017 defense exhbition in Bangkok, with the three new designs and the S26T (ordered by Thailand) in the background.
     
CSIC recently sold 8 S20 submarines to Pakistan and 3 S26T SSKs to Thailand.

The three new designs: MS200, S600 and S1100 form a new family of submarines to address a range of operational needs and submarine sizes of potential customers. Except for the midget submarine (MS200), CSIC now offers a range of Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) SSKs. According to a corporate video of the Chinese group, several countries have already shown interest in their submarine designs, including Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, Libya, Burma, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

All three submarines feature single hull designs. The Chinese appear to have parted ways with their traditional double hull architecture, likely an heritage from soviet times. This shows the progress made in recent years by the country in terms of materials and related technologies. The sail of these three new Chinese submarines also seems to have benefited from the latest research in hydrodynamics and acoustics of the 701 Institute, CSIC group's main research bureau. These sails are in line with the trapezoidal shape already observed on the new ships of the last batch of Chinese Navy Type 039B attack diesel submarine. This further reduces underwater noise.
     
CSIC submarine MS200 defense security thailand 2017 2CSIC submarine MS200 defense security thailand 2017 3Scale model of the MS200 midget submarine on CSIC stand at Defense & Security 2017 defense exhbition in Bangkok.
     
MS200 Midget Submarine
According to CSIC, the MS200 "adopt the form of the teardrop and single-hull structure. The sail has a three-dimension streamline shape, the steering plane adopts bow hydroplane and cross stern rudder."

Displacing 200 tons, the design has a length of about 30 meters; a breadth of 3.6 meters and a height of 4.4 meters. In terms of performance, its maximum speed is about 8 knots, its submerged range is 120 nautical miles and mixed range about 1500 nautical miles. Its maximum diving depth is 200 meters. Its endurance is 15 days at sea. The service life of the submarine is 25 years.

The submarine can accommodate a crew of 6 sailors plus 8 special forces. Based on the model, MS200 has two torpedo tubes.
     
CSIC submarine S600 defense security thailand 2017 4CSIC submarine S600 defense security thailand 2017 5Scale model of the 600t class AIP submarine on CSIC stand at Defense & Security 2017 defense exhbition in Bangkok.
     
600 tons-class AIP Submarine
Displacing 600 tons, the design has a length of about 50 meters; a breadth of 4.6 meters and a height of 5.6 meters. In terms of performance, its maximum submerged speed is about 15 knots (9 knots surfaced), its range is 2000 nautical miles (400 nautical miles while submerged on AIP module). Its maximum diving depth is 200 meters. Its endurance is 20 days at sea. The submarine can accommodate a crew of 15 personnel.

Based on the model, the submarine has 4 torpedo tubes.
     
CSIC submarine S1100 defense security thailand 2017 6CSIC submarine S1100 defense security thailand 2017 7Scale model of the S1100 class AIP submarine on CSIC stand at Defense & Security 2017 defense exhbition in Bangkok.
     
S1100 AIP Submarine
According to CSIC, the S1100 "adopt the form of the teardrop and single-hull structure."

Displacing 1,100 tons, the design has a length of about 60 meters; a breadth of 5.6 meters and a height of 6.8 meters. In terms of performance, its maximum submerged speed is about 15 knots, its range is 3000 nautical miles (800 nautical miles while submerged on AIP module). Its maximum diving depth is 200 meters. Its endurance is 30 days at sea. The submarine can accommodate a crew of 18 personnel. The service life of the submarine is 25 years. Based on the model, the S1100 submarine has 4 torpedo tubes.

CSIC
CSIC also proposes to help their clients with services, such as construction of the ground infrastructure to support the submarines (through life support facility or even submarine base). This might be the case in Thailand according to local sources.

For customers with a lower budget or with lower operational requirements, older submarines decommissioned from the Chinese Navy are available. The Bangladesh Navy, for example, received two overhauled Type 035G class submarines in November 2016 for a mere $200 million.
     
Our video coverage on the CSIC stand at Defense & Security 2017 defense exhbition in Bangkok.