On July 20, 2023, an official ceremony was held at Singapore's main Changi Naval Base for the acceptance into the Singapore Navy of the first large non-nuclear submarine delivered to Singapore, the German-built project 218SG from four contracted ones. The ceremony was attended by the Commander of the Singapore Navy, Rear Admiral Sean Watt.
The first large non-nuclear submarine received by the Singapore Navy is an Impeccable German-built project 218SG, 20.07.2023 (C) Ministry of National Defense of Singapore
In fact, Impeccable is the second Project 218SG submarine built in Germany for Singapore. The lead boat of this type Invincible first entered factory sea trials from the Keel on August 31, 2020, but after completing the tests and improvements, it remains in Germany for the time being to train personnel for all four boats ordered by Singapore of this project.
Recall that the Ministry of National Defense of Singapore concluded with the German shipbuilding association ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) the first contract for the construction of two non-nuclear submarines for the Singapore fleet specially designed for Singapore requirements of the new project 218SG in December 2013. In May 2017, an additional contract was signed with TKMS for the construction of two more boats of this type for the Singapore Navy. The parameters of the contracts were not reported, but unofficial German sources estimated their total value at 3.2 billion euros.
The construction of these submarines for Singapore is carried out in Kiel at the Kieler Werft shipbuilding enterprise, which is part of TKMS (the former head shipyard of Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft - HDW). The construction of the first two boats for Singapore was started there in 2014. The lead boat of this project Invincible was launched in Kiel on February 18, 2019, and the second boat Impeccable, eventually the first to join the Singapore Navy, was launched on December 13, 2022.
Upon completion of the tests, the second boat Impeccable was loaded on May 18, 2023 onto the transport ship-dock Rolldock Storm, which left Kiel on June 1 and arrived in Singapore on July 7, where the boat was withdrawn from it on July 8. The final commissioning of the Impeccable into the combat strength of the Singapore Navy should be made by the end of the year.
The third and fourth boats Illustrious and Inimitable were started construction in Kiel on January 12, 2018, their delivery should be made from 2024. The Illustrious boat was launched on December 13, 2022, simultaneously with the launch of the second boat Impossible.
The project 218SG submarine is an enlarged version of the well-known German export project of the non-nuclear submarine 214. The total surface displacement of the project 218SG boat is 2000 tons, and the total underwater displacement is 2200 tons. The length of the boat is 70 m, and the width is 6.3 m (the boat of project 214 has a total surface displacement of 1,690 tons, 65 m and 6.3 m, respectively). At the same time, the design of the 218SG boat uses elements of the architecture of another modern German project 212A - in particular, X-shaped tail rudders. The 218SG project boat has eight 533 mm torpedo tubes and two 650 mm torpedo tubes for special types of weapons and equipment. The boat is equipped with the same air-independent power plant as the boat of project 214 - that is, two modules of HDW/Siemens electrochemical generators with a capacity of 120 kW each. The boats of the 218SG project are equipped with advanced automated control systems CMS jointly developed by the German company Atlas Elektronik and Singapore Singapore Technologies Electronics. The crew is only 28 people.
The new boats of the 218SG project are to replace the submarines previously acquired in Sweden in the 171st Squadron of the Singapore Navy's submarine forces - two Challenger-type boats (Sjöormen) of the Swedish A 12 project built in the late 1960s (two more boats of this type were already withdrawn from the Singapore fleet in March 2015) and two Archer type boats (Västergötland) of the A 17 project built in the 1990s, commissioned by the Singapore Navy in 2011-2012 after being equipped in Sweden with air-independent power plants based on Stirling engines.
Built in Germany for the Singapore Navy, the large non-nuclear submarine Impeccable project 218SG in the Kiel Canal during the test period, 28.04.2023 (C) Johann @Johann_U96
