With the sale of 2 Scorpene Evolved submarines to Indonesia, 4 Blacksword Barracuda to the Netherlands, and the very likely upcoming signing of the order for 3 additional Scorpene submarines by India, the year 2024 s Already announced as a historic year for Naval Group in terms of submarine exports.
With the Scorpene model, a 2000 ton conventional propulsion submarine, acquired by Chile (2 ships delivered in 2005/2006), Malaysia (2 ships delivered in 2009), India (6 submarines forming the Kalvari class manufactured locally from 2009 to 2024) and Brazil (4 submarines manufactured locally from 2018 to 2025), the Scorpene had managed, until then, almost as well as the Daphnée, a submarine of 1000 tonnes exported in 15 examples from 1965 to 1975, to the Spanish, Pakistani, Portuguese and South African navies, a score which will soon be exceeded with the sale of 3 additional Kalvaris to the Indian Navy.
This new French record could well be destined to last only a short time. Indeed, with its new Scorpene Evolved, Naval Group has a model combining the recognized reliability of the Scorpene, and the performance that the new Lithium-ion batteries will give it, constituting a clear competitive advantage over its main rivals, such as the Type 214. German and the Swedish A26.
Above all, a formidable market is opening up for the Scorpene Evolved, while more than a dozen world navies have started consultations to replace a total of more than fifty conventionally powered submarines by 2035.
Second part of the article. The first part can be viewed here.
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11 submarines in Europe: Greece, Poland, Romania
In the world, there are only eight manufacturers offering military submarines on the international market. Four of them, the German TKMS, the Spanish Navantia, the Swedish Saab Kockums and the French Naval Group, are European. It is therefore not surprising that the European submarine market is the most tense and competitive there is.
Thus, in recent years, several major contracts in this area have been signed between European navies and industrialists from the old continent, most often with the German TKMS, until now almost untouchable, here as elsewhere.
Portugal and Greece thus opted for the German Type 214, respectively for 2 examples (2010) and 4 examples (2010-2016), while Norway chose the German Type 212 CD for 4 examples, in 2019, against Naval Group's Scorpene, after Berlin offered to acquire two submarines of this type for the Bundesmarine, and to assume the R&D costs of the class.
Italy, for its part, recently announced the order for two additional Type 212 NFS, to bring its fleet to six ships. The French Naval Group has, for its part, established itself in the Netherlands in 2024, for four Blacksword Barracuda submarines, intended to replace the 4 Walrus of the Dutch Navy.
Today, there remain three navies having launched, or will soon launch, competitions for the acquisition of new submarines in Europe. The most imminent contract is Polish, and concerns the construction of three submarines which will form the Orca class.
According to Warsaw, the ships must be capable of both coastal missions, particularly in the Baltic Sea, and oceanic missions, in the North Atlantic and the North Sea. In addition, they will have to have great autonomy at sea, and carry strike missiles towards land.
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Hello,
What about Naval Group's production capacities? Will they follow? In general, are submarines manufactured in France or locally as in the Indonesian case?
It depends. The Dutch Blacksword will be assembled in Cherbourg. The Scorpene will be assembled on site. With the 3G SSN/SSBN and the Blacksword, Cherbourg will be on the job for at least 10 years. So it's a safe bet that NG systematically offers local constructions around the Scorpene Evolution.
Hello, yes the time of DCN is long gone. we can see an ambitious group with technologies ahead of many other countries. provided that it lasts and that we are not forced to also engage in hazardous cooperation with our dear Italian or other neighbors…
This is indeed the risk, especially since the temptation is great, politically speaking, since everyone is convinced that cooperation makes it possible to reduce costs (and we saw in the article on the Scaf, that this was not the case, despite the fact that the R&D of the program is very important.)
But on the other hand, recent history has shown that without production capacity with reasonable lead time there is no point of sale.
So manufacturing plants all over the world BUT keeping Cherbourg eh 😛 that will certainly be the solution