Germany Retires 6 Of Its 10 Submarines — Non Aviation Forum

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Germany Retires 6 Of Its 10 Submarines

mffoda From United States of America, joined Apr 2010, 908 posts, RR: 0
Posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 2435 times:

"The German Navy abruptly decommissioned more than half of its submarine fleet on June 1, well ahead of the planned 2016 retirement of the six 500-ton U-206A-class diesel submarines."

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4656689&c=EUR&s=SEA

Wow!!! Wow! Does anyone know why this happened so suddenly?

"The spokesman did not say whether the decommissioning was related to recently announced government plans to cut defense spending."

harder than woodpecker lips...

7 replies: All unread, jump to last

francoflier From France, joined Oct 2001, 3195 posts, RR: 10
Reply 1, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 2404 times:

European countries are feeling the heat, and any unnecessary spending will be scrutinized.

In the current geopolitical context, and considering the relatively small German coastline, a fleet of 10 attack subs might just be one of these 'unnecessary spendings'...

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit posting...

dl021 From United States of America, joined May 2004, 11433 posts, RR: 81
Reply 2, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 2276 times:

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European nations were having a hard enough time paying for their domestic social welfare programs prior to the economic difficulties, now they're in trouble and they're killing any expense they think they can live without. Germany is hard pressed to identify a likely opponent in the Baltic, which is where their subs are designed to primarily operate, now that Russia is no longer considered an imminent threat, and they feel that they can provide adequate undersea response with two deployable subs (having four gives you one or two that are deployable at any given time unless you're actually at war in the sea.

Is my Pan Am ticket to the moon still good?

Dreadnought From United States of America, joined Feb 2008, 7761 posts, RR: 22
Reply 3, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 2250 times:

Quoting dl021 (Reply 4):
European nations were having a hard enough time paying for their domestic social welfare programs prior to the economic difficulties, now they're in trouble and they're killing any expense they think they can live without. Germany is hard pressed to identify a likely opponent in the Baltic, which is where their subs are designed to primarily operate, now that Russia is no longer considered an imminent threat, and they feel that they can provide adequate undersea response with two deployable subs (having four gives you one or two that are deployable at any given time unless you're actually at war in the sea.

Remember that the subs being retired are some 35 years old, and that Germany has several much more modern Type 212 subs in construction.

Veni Vidi Castratavi Illegitimos

racko From Germany, joined Nov 2001, 4838 posts, RR: 21
Reply 4, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 2233 times:

Currently we only had 1 crew per sub, meaning deployment was always a bit difficult. This is going to be changed to 2 complete crews per sub. They're still transitioning from their former role as speed bump for the Warsaw pact to a modern concept. There may be way more drastic changes for the German Armed forces ahead.

mffoda From United States of America, joined Apr 2010, 908 posts, RR: 0
Reply 5, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 2230 times:

After rereading the article.... It may not be as dire as it sounded.

Those were some pretty old boats (73-75 vintage)

They are expecting the delivery of two more U-212A-class subs by 2012 or 2013. And they are using the blue and gold crew rotation... So, they will end up with 6 new boats and 12 crews... Seems like a similiar capability to the 10 boats of present. (if nothing bad happans between now and then.)

harder than woodpecker lips...

Lumberton From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 4708 posts, RR: 21
Reply 6, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 1947 times:

The 4+2 boats left will be AIP driven and very capable. Still, the laws of physics will prevent them from being in more than one place at a time. I hope Germany does not have to re-learn the old adage that "quantity is a quality of its own".

"When all is said and done, more will be said than done".

DeltaMD90 From United States of America, joined Apr 2008, 5290 posts, RR: 48
Reply 7, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 1775 times:

As an American and a military guy, I'm gonna throw it out there that this does seem like a good idea. There really isn't much of a naval threat to Germany, and I highly doubt Russia is gonna take on any country larger than the ones they've been fighting now. Then again, I do not know much about European defense/politics, but at least I admit it

Ironically I have never flown a Delta MD-90 :)

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