PressTV, February 9, 2020 reports:
"Qatar is reportedly expected to acquire submarines from Italy and turn into the first Persian Gulf Arab country to operate those watercrafts.
The American business magazine Forbes reported that a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Italian company Fincantieri, Europe's largest shipbuilder, covers the “supply of cutting-edge naval vessels and submarines” to the Qatari Emiri Navy.
Pete Comment
Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri joint builds with TKMS of Germany the Type 212A/Todaro class conventional subs.
Fincantieri is apparently joint marketing with Russia's ROSOBORONEXPORT (with RUBIN Design Bureau as the joint builder) a smaller 1,000 - 1,100 ton concept submarine, known as the "S1000" (see artwork with specifications below). As https://www.fincantieri.com/en/products-and-services/naval-vessels/s1000/ indicates, the "S1000" can be fitted with a Air Independent Propulsion "AIP capability (Fuel cell based) 200 kW"
As Italy is a NATO country, with access to high submarine tech, the idea of Fincantieri joint marketing with Russia the S1000 (which could be fitted with the Fuel Cell AIP system (designed in Germany? Still holding German intellectual property rights?) might be problematic.
Russian industry (in the Kilo sub ) has been unable to develop an AIP systems to compete with those of Western firms. Russia would find AIP in its Russian Navy Lada submarines to be strategically useful against the West. If Russia could at last incorporate Western AIP into its long awaited, but so far not exported, Amur 1650 and smaller Amur 950 submarines, such Russian exports could represent $Billions lost by Russia's Western submarine competitors.
Possibly Fincantieri might build much smaller submarines for Qatar (Italy has a long history building small subs) without any AIP tech/Russia complications.
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Pete
"Qatar is reportedly expected to acquire submarines from Italy and turn into the first Persian Gulf Arab country to operate those watercrafts.
The American business magazine Forbes reported that a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Italian company Fincantieri, Europe's largest shipbuilder, covers the “supply of cutting-edge naval vessels and submarines” to the Qatari Emiri Navy.
"Qatar may become the first Arab Persian Gulf state to operate submarines," the report said, adding that currently Iran is the only submarine operator in the Persian Gulf.
According to the report, the Qatari submarines, which are likely to be relatively small light ones, may be part of a much larger 5-billion-euro deal with Italy which was agreed in 2017.
...It further said that Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two of Qatar’s neighbors embroiled in a diplomatic crisis with Doha, have both stated needs to acquire submarines.
"Qatar has difficult relations these countries so the submarine acquisition could be seen, at least in part, as a response to these moves," the report added. [Pete Comment - oddly Qatar, which sits in the Persian Gulf, enjoys good relations with Iran.]
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hisutton/2020/02/04/qatars-massive-naval-expansion-to-include-submarines/#200f905b322e.See H I Sutton's original Forbes article, of February 4, 2020:
Pete Comment
Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri joint builds with TKMS of Germany the Type 212A/Todaro class conventional subs.
Fincantieri is apparently joint marketing with Russia's ROSOBORONEXPORT (with RUBIN Design Bureau as the joint builder) a smaller 1,000 - 1,100 ton concept submarine, known as the "S1000" (see artwork with specifications below). As https://www.fincantieri.com/en/products-and-services/naval-vessels/s1000/ indicates, the "S1000" can be fitted with a Air Independent Propulsion "AIP capability (Fuel cell based) 200 kW"
As Italy is a NATO country, with access to high submarine tech, the idea of Fincantieri joint marketing with Russia the S1000 (which could be fitted with the Fuel Cell AIP system (designed in Germany? Still holding German intellectual property rights?) might be problematic.
Russian industry (in the Kilo sub ) has been unable to develop an AIP systems to compete with those of Western firms. Russia would find AIP in its Russian Navy Lada submarines to be strategically useful against the West. If Russia could at last incorporate Western AIP into its long awaited, but so far not exported, Amur 1650 and smaller Amur 950 submarines, such Russian exports could represent $Billions lost by Russia's Western submarine competitors.
Possibly Fincantieri might build much smaller submarines for Qatar (Italy has a long history building small subs) without any AIP tech/Russia complications.
The S1000 concept submarine being marketed by Russia and Italy's Fincantieri (can include AIP).
(Artwork and specs courtesy Fincantieri)
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Pete