LIB costs & numbers for Japan’s Oryu, Toryu and Taigei Submarines

Following the October 19, 2020 article on Lithium-ion Battery (LIB) numbers Anonymous reported, on October 27, 2020, further information on LIB costs, numbers and arrangements for Japan’s most recent 3 submarines.

Japanese Soryu Mk 2 submarines Oryu(27SS) equip with 640 LIBs (battery modules) (=320 LIBs x 2 groups [1, 2] ) andToryu (28SS) with possible 679 LIBs [3]. First of the new submarine class Taigei (29SS) may equip with 672 LIBs (=336 LIBs x 2 groups [3] ) and has somewhat improved power compared with 27SS or 28SS.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) is developing a new power storage and supply system [4]. Onsite testing of the system might be conducted by using Taigei as a test ship. 

[1]http://blog.livedoor.jp/wispywood2344/others/SMC-8B%20P_9_s.png

[2] Battery modules in a group are presumably consisted of two sets i.e., 240 and 80 battery modules.

[3] The price of LIBs (all of the new “SLH” type made by Japanese company GS Yuasa) are:
- 8.3 Billion Yen (US$80 million) for Oryu 28SS,
- 8.6 B Yen (US$83 million) for Toryu29SS and
- 8.4 B Yen (US$81 million) for Taigei30SS.
Price of defense equipment usually goes down every year. But, in 29SS, price of LIBs went up compared with 28SS suggesting increased number of LIBs. If 28SS equips with 640 LIBs, then perhaps the estimated number of LIBs in 29SS is 679 [=640 x 8.6 /(8.3 x (8.4/8.6))]. Then, the most likely number of LIBs for 30SS is 672(=28 columns x 12 rows x 2 groups) based on pricing, cancellation of stray magnetic field and so on.

[4] Research and trial production of high-efficiency power storage and supply system for submarines. Trial production (budget 8.2 billion yen (US$79 million)) and offsite testing will be conducted in 2019-2022 and 2023, respectively.

From the LIB information above see the estimated number of LIBs and their known cost of LIBs (in Billions Yen) for 28SS, 29SS and 30SS in the Table below.

Japanese Submarine Table as at October 28, 2020.