Page 6 - ADT MARCH / APRIL 2024 Digital Magazine | GBP

submarines are vital for the defence “Illustrious” in December 2022, the engineered jointly by the RSN,
of Singapore which sits astride a fourth boat has now been launched. Defence Science and Technology
focal point of international shipping The “Inimitable” will be handed Agency (DSTA) and industry partner
routes, with close to 90,000 ships over from 2025 after extensive tkMS. The submarines are custom-
pass through the Straits of Malacca testing. Impeccable, which was ised for operations in Singapore’s
and Singapore each year, account- launched in 2022, returned to shallow and busy tropical waters,
ing for a third of global trade. The Singapore last year and is currently and possess longer endurance and
port of Singapore handled 39 million undergoing a series of local sea higher payloads. The submarines
containers in 2023. trials and working up towards full built in this project are the most
operationalisation and its commis- modern conventional submarines
sioning later this year. The design of the world has ever seen. They
The RSN’s fourth submarine in the the Type 218SG submarines feature belong to a new, state-of-the-art
Type 218SG construction pro-
gram was named ’Inimitable’ at the an AIP system that gives the boats generation and are also the largest
submarines built in Germany to
a long underwater endurance.
thyssenkrupp Marine Systems ship-
yard in Kiel in April. Following the date said Oliver Burkhard, CEO of
thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. With
“Invincible” in 2019 and the double The Invincible-class subma-
launching of the “Impeccable” and rines were conceptualised and a displacement of around 2,000
tonnes and length of approximately
70 metres, they are currently the
largest submarines ever built at
Marine Systems.

In September 2023, tkMS started
production in Kiel of the world’s
most advanced conventional
submarines. The Type 212CD
boats belong to a joint programme
with the Norwegian and German
navies, which in July 2021, placed
the largest order in the history of
thyssenkrupp Marine Systems
to date. The order comprises the
delivery of two submarines to
the German Navy and four to the
Royal Norwegian Navy. Delivery
of the first submarine for the Royal

6 | MARCH - APRIL 2024 WWW.GBP.COM.SG/ADT