Savronik Banner

Future Italian NFS submarines pass CDR

Future Italian NFS submarines pass CDR

Italy formalised the acquisition of four NFS submarines through the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR). This also includes logistical support throughout its entire life cycle, an agreement that will significantly reduce the total cost of the four vessels. The new submarines will be four 212A III units based on the German Type 212, but including, amongst other improvements, a slight increase in overall length necessary to accommodate a new optronic mast housed in the upper part of the sail.

The NFS submarines are planned to have an approximate displacement of 1,600 tons, a length of 59 metres, and a maximum diameter of 7 metres, and they will have 29 crew.

Future Italian NFS submarines pass CDR

According to OCCAR, the approval of the Critical Design Review marks the formal evaluation of the system"s final design. In this way, the CDR has demonstrated that the design is mature and fully meets the performance requirements, and future ships can proceed to the manufacturing, systems installation, integration and testing phase.

The first unit, whose construction began in January 2022, is expected to be delivered in December 2027, while the second will be ready for delivery in January 2029. Of the third and fourth units, only the purchase option was initially negotiated, becoming effective in hiring the third submarine in December of last year. Given the Italian plans and the need to maintain the workload in their shipyards not to lose know-how, everything indicates that they will end up replacing the four Sauro in a 1:1 ratio.

FNSS