nice boat, but the foxtrots are too dated now, they would have been better off buying a single type 209 from germany of a forign country and probably saved money while imporved the tech and capability level.
personally i dont think this is more than a PR stunt the foxtrot design is 50+ years old triple screw is noisey, they are slow unable to match the depths of the russian submarine alrosa in the black sea (kilo class).
out of this all they will achieve is an antiquated piece of scrap with some modern gumpf put in it, with the current plans of the russian navy black sea fleet to move a new submarine of the lada class to the area i dont think even with updated tech this boat could match what the ukrainians are hoping for.
plus your forgetting another black sea power and also probably the one who controls the entrance and exits to the med and other oceans beyond turkey with thier submarines, numbers dont match up.
romanian navy currently doesnt operate a submarine in the black sea, but as the capable ASW force, georgia and a few ex soviet satalite states dont operate these vessels (yet) turkey is the only other major power in the black sea with upto 14 type 209 submarines in various states of readyness i might also add they have plans to add type 214's to the list by 2015 which probably will see A a reduction in numbers and B the type 209's being phased out.
the foxtrots are legends a beautiful looking boat but they were obsolete even while being built, they are also the most numerous class of submarine built post WW2 beating the 688's at the hieght 64 foxtrots were in the soviet navy alone with more in other navies around the world and india was a big purchaser of these vessels.
verdict on this:
buy a kilo or something not so dated
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