[Onkel Neal]

This Submarine Is "Invincible": Meet the Super Sub Headed to China's Doorstep

On February 18, 2018, officials gathered to celebrate the launch of a new state-of-the-art submarine at a shipyard in Kiel, Germany. But unlike similar Type 212 submarines previously built there, the seventy-meter long diesel-submarine isn’t destined to shadow Russian submarines in the cold waters of the Baltic Sea.

Instead, the Invincible will lurk in the warmer Pacific waters around the Straits of Malacca in the service of the Republic of Singapore Navy. In so doing, the 2,000-ton submarine and her three forthcoming stablemates will become new factors in the ongoing multi-national competition for influence over the South China Sea.

The Invincible, also designated the Type 218SG, joins the growing numbers of air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarines active in the Pacific Ocean in the navies of China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. AIP allows a comparatively cheap diesel-electric submarine to cruise underwater at slow speeds for weeks at a time, instead of having to surface or snorkel every few days.