“Navy officials blame bottlenecks in the procurement of spare parts for the submarines’ downtime. While a comprehensive package of spare parts was a key aspect of any new acquisition during the Cold War, cost-saving measures adopted since then have resulted in parts no longer being kept in reserve....”
Of the German Navy’s 6 subs “U-Boote”:
U-31 is being overhauled at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard until December 2017 or is that 2018?
Is U-31 operational yet?
U-32 is out of service, awaiting a maintenance spot at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard
U-33 is being overhauled at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard until February 2018
U-34 is out of service, awaiting a maintenance spot at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard
U-35 was moved into TKMS shipyard at Kiel after an X-plane rudder blade was damaged during a
diving manoeuvre off Norway on October 15, 2017. Damage to be repaired by?
U-36 is being overhauled at TKMS’s Kiel shipyard until May 2018
GERMAN SOURCES
"SPARE PARTS BOTTLENECK: Marine misery: Germany's submarines are all broken" (in German the article says "kaputt"). To translate this German language article Right-click mouse, then "Translate to English".
As at December 2, 2017 the situation does not appear to have improved https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/deutsche-u-boote-101.html
Are any of Germany's submarines available or operational as of December 6, 2017?
Pete