Type 212 class attack submarine
Class Overview
Class Type	Attack Submarine
Class Name	Type 212
Preceded By	Type 209 submarine
Succeeded By	Type 214 submarine
Ships of the Class:	U31, U32, U33, U34, Salvatore Todaro, Sciré

The German Type 212A is an advanced design of non-nuclear submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW). It features air-independent propulsion using nine 34-kilowatt Siemens hydrogen fuel cells, allowing the submarines to cruise under water for weeks without surfacing, silently, and with no exhaust heat. HDW is the first shipyard in the world to offer a fuel cell propulsion system ready for series production.

An initial order of four Type 212 submarines was placed by the German government in 1998. Because of significant updates to the design the designation was changed to Type 212A since then. They were built by the German Submarine Consortium at the shipyards of HDW and Thyssen Nordseewerke GmbH (TNSW) of Emden. Very similar to the way Airbus builds aircraft, different sections of the submarines were constructed at both sites at the same time and then half of them were shipped to the respective other yard so that both HDW and Thyssen Nordseewerke assembled two complete submarines each.

Salvatore Todaro, a Type 212A built by Fincantieri for the Marina Militare (Italian Navy), is scheduled to be commissioned in 2005, and her sister Sciré is under construction. Two more Italian Type 212s are planned.

Three Dolphin class submarines built for the Israeli Navy are of a similar design, but using conventional diesel-electric propulsion.

List of Ships

---

Country	Pennant number	Name	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned
Germany	S181	U31		March 2002	October 192005
Italy	S526	Salvatore Todaro			June 2005
Germany	S182	U32		December 2003	October 192005
Germany	S183	U33		September 2004	January 2006
Germany	S184	U34		July 2006
Italy	S527	Sciré			May 2006

General characteristics

---

• Displacement: 1450 tons surfaced, 1830 tons submerged
• Length: 56 m
• Beam: 7 m
• Draft: 6 m
• Propulsion:
  • 1 MTU 16V 396 diesel-engine, 3.12 MW
  • 9 HDW/Siemens PEM fuel cells, 30-40 kW each (U31)
  • 2 HDW/Siemens PEM fuel cells 120 kW (U32, U33, U34)
  • 1 Siemens Permasyn electric motor, driving single seven-bladed skew-back propeller
• Speed: 20 knots (37 km/h) submerged, 12 knots surfaced
• Depth: over 250m (official), greater than 400 m (estimated)
• Range:
  • 8,000 nautical miles (14,800 km) at 8 knots (15 km/h) surfaced,
• Endurance: 3 weeks without snorkeling, 12 weeks overall
• Armament:
  • 6 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes with 12 torpedoes
  • 24 external naval mines (optional)
• Countermeasures:
  • Torpedo defence system Tau, 4 launchers, 40 jammers/decoys
• Sensors:
  • STN Atlas DBQS40 sonar suite:
    • TAS-3 passive low-frequency towed array sonar (deployed from sail)
    • FAS-3 passive Low-, and med-frequency hull-mounted flank array sonar
    • MOA 3070 mine detection sonar
  • Periscopes:
    • Carl Zeiss SERO 14, with FLIR and optical rangefinder
    • Carl Zeiss SERO 15, with laser range-finder
  • Kelvin Hughes Type 1007 I band navigation radar
  • EADS FL 1800U ESM suite
• Complement: 27

See also

---

External links

---

• naval-technology.com
• Germany Launches Submarine Fuel Cell Era With “U31”, Fuel Cell Today, May 202002

Submarine classes | Submarines of Germany | Submarine stubs | Italian Navy submarines | Fuel cell vehicles

U-Boot-Klasse 212 | Classe U212 (sottomarino) | 212A型潜水艦