I'm still open to the idea of operating cheap midget submarine tbh. Of course they won't be our main vocal point in defense and attack.
I still prefer to have blue water AIP/battery sub like A26 (oceanic or extended variant + 300km cruise missiles VLS option) as our main player underwater.
Regarding the midget sub, there's one aspect that I think we should have as part of our defense setup, which is to have very strong tonnage-war capability.
Just look at our geographical position and the importance of our waters for the international trade. This will give us another deterrent factor for any potential adversaries (especially china).
You don't need heavy subs to win in a tonnage-war. The German used U-boats in WW2 because they needed to do it in a huge & deep Atlantic ocean. We'll only need to do it in shallow waters. Our own shallow waters.
We only need something that can launch torpedoes undetected. And we need in numbers. Cheap midget subs fit this need.
All will depend on the price of course. I'm not sure how much midget sub is going nowadays.
This is just one example of midget sub produced by the Italian DRASS. It can carry 6 torpedoes per sub.
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This is supposed to be the spec :
- Displacement: 115 tons surfaced, 130 tons submerged
- Length: 28.2 m
- Width: 2.3 m hull diameter, 3.92 m with hydroplanes
- Height: 6.4 m
- Crew: 7 + 2 PAX
- Range: 1,800 nm, 120 nm on batteries
- Speed: 9 kt max, 4 kt cruising, 7.5 kt surfaced
- Operating depth: TBC
- Armament: 6 x 400mm torpedoes, 6 mines.
- Other: 1 x inflatable boat
- Equipment: Passive sonar, active sonar, SWR Intercept Sonar, Radar Warning Receiver, TV periscope, Underwater Communications, Ring-Laster gyrocompass, echosounder, doppler velocity log
We can also use this midget sub as our underwater guerrilla warfare in our shallow waters, just in case the enemy manages to breach our 1st defense line.