Together, Germany and Norway are bearing the costs of a multi-decade commitment to deliver and advance the U212 Common Design (CD) submarine.
A lot of training and infrastructure comes behind such a project according to two speakers, representing their respective navies, in an update on the future diesel-electric (SSK) boat at the Undersea Defence Technology conference in Oslo, Norway on 25 March.
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“Cost is second to time – timely availability,” stressed the German partner, Captain Bernd Weis, coordinator for the German-Norwegian Naval Defence Materiel Cooperation.
At present, Germany will procure six units and Norway four; although this collective acquisition will increase to 12 boats in all pending parliamentary approval in Norway, which will likely be under “contract this year” revealed the Norwegian partner, Captain Oystein Storebo, programme director for submarines in the Norwegian Ministry of Defence.
“Doing everything together, merging the systems to gain those effects is something we are doing. Strength is in numbers,” Weis continued.
The duo affirmed that the project meets standard Nato requirements; Canada, Greece, and Poland have each expressed interest in joining the programme. However, both speakers made it clear that the current design is fixed.
Weis’ comment – that time trumps cost – came one week after the German parliament voted to relax government borrowing restrictions, thus enabling greater defence spending.
Naval Technology learned that the possibility of additional investment would focus on weapons integration. In this area, the partners will adopt Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile, while the two are also developing an anti-submarine warfare, supersonic strike missile known as 3SM.
Production capacity: Bergen and Wismar
A lot of investment is being made in the ‘boring bits’, or working procedures that support the programme, including a common maintenance facility to be built in Bergen, Norway.
The foundation stone was laid by the German Minister of Defence, Boris Pistorius, and Norway’s former Defence Minister, Bjørn Arild Gram, in December 2024.
This new facility will be ready as the first boat enters service in 2029.
Storebo added that a “second production line” has been added, which is now “being put up and will start to run shortly in the future.”
Looking ahead, the two also confirmed there may be “additional capacity” in Wismar, Germany to build the remaining boats.
