A different class: new upgrades bring vintage Type 209s back into fashion

摘要

The international diesel-submarine market has been dominated by Germany over the past 40 years, with the Type 209 design very much the lynchpin of this global export success.rnThis stemmed from 1967 when the Kiel-based shipyard then known as Kieler How-aldtswerke signed a contract in Athens, Greece, to build four Type 209/1100 Glavkos-class submarines for the Hellenic Navy (HN). These 1,000-ton submerged displacement boats could trace their lineage to the German Navy's smaller (450 tons displacement) Type 206 submarines. While somewhat larger, they used many of the same components, in some cases by doubling up on certain equipment such as generators.