Nicky commentedon November 5, 2019 in response to my South Korean DSME 2000 Concept Submarine, Specifications, Potential Customers article of November 4, 2019. My reply to Nicky just grew and grew. So I am making it into the following comment with links.
I think an assumption that the "Philippines can[not] afford submarines coming from South Korea or Europe" is dated. The Philippines is no longer a poor country reliant on very old second-hand vessels. For example, the Philippines has bought 2 NEW frigatesfrom South Korea.
If you look at this IMF Countries by Nominal GDP in 2019 List you'll see the Philippines (at US$347 Billion) is richer than:
- Egypt (at US$302 Billion) - that has just bought new German Type 209 submarines
- Chile (at US$294 Billion) that has 2 old German subs but 2 recent French Scorpene subs
- Pakistan (at US$284 Billion) that has 5 French subs and buying 8 subs from China, and
- much richer than Portugal (at US$236 Billion) and Greece (at US$214 Billion) that both have
European subs.
European subs.
I'd add that South Korea is a more efficient, lower cost submarine builder than Russia. “In 2011, South Korea beat Russia, France, and Germany in competition for a $1.1 billion tender to supply Indonesia with three [Chang Bogo] Type 209-class submarines.”
Russia generally lacks the money to equal South Korea's soft loan enticements. Also Russia has a notoriously high cost, shoddy work submarine overhaul and weapons upgrade reputation. Just ask the Indians about how unreliable the Russian upgrade for India's Kilos subs was. This upgrade was to fit Klub anti-ship missiles to India's Kilos - with the missiles proving particularly unreliable.
Yes, as I indicated in the November 4, 2019 article, Chile and Argentina are possible buyers for DSME 2000s. Argentina has such old subs that they are unsafe, like the ARA San Juan, that sadly sank.
I don't know whether Columbia needs 2,000 ton medium-large subs for their main role - which is anti-drug smuggler surveillance. See my 2015 article where Columbia, in 2015, acquired 2 small 500 ton Type 206s from Germany.
Pete