Viking-class submarine

The Viking-class submarine was a planned class of submarines to be built by the Viking Submarine Corporation. Viking was a corporation jointly established by Kockums in Sweden, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace in Norway and Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark. Finland was an observer of the Viking project, as an eventual future buyer of additional Viking submarines. The idea was to develop modern successor to the Swedish Gotland class, that would have cost about one third of the German Type 214.[2] It was initially planned that the Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian navies would purchase two, four, and four Viking-class submarines each starting in 2005.

A model of a K9D Viking-class submarine
Class overview
NameViking class
BuildersViking Submarine Corporation
Operators
Succeeded byA26 submarine
Planned10
Cancelled10
General characteristics
TypeSubmarine
Displacement1,100–1,700 t (1,083–1,673 long tons)
Length52–60 m (170 ft 7 in – 196 ft 10 in)
Beam6.7 m (22 ft 0 in)
PropulsionStirling Air-independent propulsion (AIP)
Speed
  • 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) surfaced
  • 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) submerged
EnduranceCan stay submerged up to 100% of mission time
Complement22–28
Sensors and
processing systems
DMUX20 / TSM2233 Mk3[1]
Armament

When the Royal Danish Navy announced that they would stop using submarines completely in the summer of 2004,[citation needed] the whole Viking project was cancelled. Currently Kockums is doing low-intensive continuous research, based on the Viking design, towards the A26 submarine for Sweden.

In 2015 Damen Group and Saab Group announced that they have teamed up to jointly develop, offer and build next-generation submarines that are able to replace the current Walrus-class submarines of the Royal Netherlands Navy.[3] It is speculated that the design will be derived from the A26 submarine.[4]

References edit

  1. ^ Friedman, Norman (2006). The Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapon Systems. Naval Institute Press. p. 615. ISBN 9781557502629.
  2. ^ ""Tre Vikingubåtar för en tysk"". foi.se. Archived from the original on 6 October 2007. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  3. ^ "Saab and Damen Team for Walrus Future Submarine Replacement Programme". www.damen.com. 20 January 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  4. ^ "Saab en Damen tonen nieuw ontwerp onderzeeboot". www.marineschepen.nl. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.

External links edit