Apparently, so the story goes, Pakistan is looking at purchasing a number of small coastal submarines from the French in order to patrol the shallow coastal waters found in and around its EEZ. The submarine in question is the French DCNS Andrasta.

You can see, probably the most up to date set of figures at this time, here:

www.dcnsgroup.com/files/pdf/Andrasta.pdf

It all seems fairly impressive. The Andrasta design is an evolution of the SMX-23, which then DCN were pushing back in 2006 at IDEAS 2006 in Karachi. I wrote a little about it for PakDef in my IDEAS2006 report:

www.pakdef.info/exhibitions/ideas2006/index.html

Contrary to what I wrote in 2006, it seems now that there is a requirement for such a submarine, because unbeknown to me, the waters around the EEZ and nearby Indian littoral, are actually quite shallow, and therefore rather difficult for larger submarines to operate in.

The Andrasta is a fairly compact submarine at only 49 metres long, and from the looks of the computer generated images available, looks like it would probably be a fairly manoeuvrable craft, well capable of operating in shallow waters.

However, there is one aspect of this which is rather more interesting however, and that is that Pakistan would like to know if the design can modified to include an AIP unit. The French claim it can. At this point alarm bells should be ringing. The Andrasta is a ‘paper design’ like the Marlin (or ‘submarine formerly known as Marlin’ – now a ‘member’ of the Scorpene family). Though it claims to have 70 percent commonality with the Scorpene, it is still a ‘paper design’, because it exists only on paper. With so much riding on its long drawn out submarine acquisition programme, (now thought to include talks for a number of Chinese submarines as well), can Pakistan risk making a mistake? The answer is obviously “NO!”, because Pakistan is a highly indebted nation (thanks to staggering financial mismanagement by the current government), and is surviving on loans because it has very little money of its own, (because the very few Pakistanis that should legitimately be paying the most taxes, have the most violent aversion to paying any taxes at all – amongst other things).

There is always considerable risk in buying something ‘off plan’. Ask the Greeks. They purchased the Type-209 ‘off plan’, and then did the same for the Type-214. Both of these submarine designs are superb and have been very successful, but designs need to mature, and there are always glitches that need fixing in even the best of platforms. With two Agosta-70 submarines that are approaching retirement, the Pakistan Navy cannot be allowed to be left with just three Khalid class submarines to shoulder the entire operational burden. However, if there are any more delays, that is what we are facing. Leaving aside the question of whether we will ever see the Type-214 in service, or the Chinese Type-041A Yuan class (or will it be the Type-039 Song class?), if Pakistan really is serious about a small submarine then perhaps there are alternatives. There is one very obvious one, the HDW Type-210mod.

Here is HDW’s official Type-210mod page:

http://www.hdw.de/en/class-210mod.html

As can be seen, it is a slightly larger design than the Andrasta, but the that should not be taken as the key difference (bar some clear performance and armament advantages in favour of the Type-210mod), because if a 6 metre AIP ‘plug’ is inserted into the French submarine, they will both be of similar dimensions. The key difference is, is that the Type-210mod is a far less risky design. The risk in fact seems to be minimal.

For a start it is based on an existing design, the Norwegian Ula class that has been in service for around twenty years. Here’s the Military Today page for the Ula class submarine:

http://www.military-today.com/navy/ula_class.htm

(It has a short film that shows you nothing in particular if you’re interested). Or if it takes your fancy, here’s the Wiki entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ula_class_submarine

As you can see, it is a fairly decent design with good pedigree. However, the Type-210mod takes things a step further, because it incorporates design characteristics and systems from the Type-209/1400mod, Type-212A, and Type-214. There is therefore very little that needs to be proven, as pretty much everything is not only a physical reality, but already in service.

The Type-210mod does not have a hydrogen fuel cell AIP unit, but considering it has a range of 5000miles, it probably doesn’t need one. This is after all a coastal submarine. Also the Type-210mod’s Permaysn motor (as I understand is fitted to the Type-212A), is apparently able to recharge the batteries quicker than would normally be the case. I’m not sure if the AIP unit will do much to increase the overall range of the Andrasta in relation to that of the Type-210mod either. The Type-210mod is clearly the superior submarine in every respect.

It could be said that after the Khalid class programme, Pakistan has the technological base to manufacture the Andrasta, whereas things would need modifying to build the Type-210mod. That is true to some extent, but not completely. Pakistan has the technological capacity to fabricate the basic hull and the pressure hull, but it lacks the capacity to completely build the entire submarine. For a start there are no presses in Pakistan to fabricate the pressure domes of the pressure hull. This is a highly specialised and costly piece of equipment. A country would only invest in such a piece of equipment if it was to have a constant need for it. Other sub-systems would also have to come from France such as the AIP module, the SUBTICS combat management system, the diesel engine, the sensors, probably even the weapon handling systems, and a whole host of other things besides. The notion therefore that Pakistan may also be able to export these submarines if it was the launch customer is rather fanciful. Everything would depend on the French agreeing to support the deal. It probably would never happen.

The only thing that I can think Pakistani domestic defence industry could supply would be something like the MSL Towed Array Sonar, which is a compact system optimised for the conditions found in and around the Arabian Sea. Obviously there would be other things as well, but off the top of my head, I can only think of this system.

There are probably more industrial benefits to be had by selecting the Type-210mod, especially if Pakistan does finally get around to signing on the dotted line for the Type-214. The two designs share a commonality in systems, and the facilities upgraded to manufacture the Type-214 would probably be entirely sufficient to manufacture the Type-210mod. HDW may even be amiable to agreeing to a lower unit price if both types are selected. It would after all be good news for HDW as they would be securing another Type-214 deal, and would have found a launch customer for the Type-210mod.

It is however, price that is the deciding factor here. The Andrasta is probably cheaper, (though it is French, so we cannot be entirely sure there given their track record of grossly inflating prices – let’s just assume it is the case that it’s cheaper though). Pakistan is broke, and is looking around to obtain what it can for the meagre pennies it has.

Let’s just hope that if it is the case that cost is a factor, it isn’t anything to do with ‘baksheesh’ though. This is after all Pakistan potentially negotiating a defence deal with the French. There is past form to consider.

Let’s wait and see if this is all true to start off though…