Thailand's grand plan to operate a modern diesel-electric submarine with S26T Class AIP (Air Independent Propulsion) technology seems to be delayed for quite a while. The reason is that the delivery schedule for the submarines produced by China Shipbuilding and Offshore International Company (CSOC) will actually be greatly corrected.
In fact, the problems facing China as a producer and Thailand as a buyer are quite serious, and it is not impossible that a submarine project worth THB13.5 billion (US$430 million) – a 2017 contract, will stall.
Even though the S26T submarine was supposed to be delivered to Thailand at the end of 2023. So what caused the chaos in the submarine project that was built only by one unit?
Quoted from voanews.com (31/3/2022), the root of the problem with the stagnation of the S26T submarine construction project was due to the embargo, precisely China was hit by an arms embargo from the European Union, in this case, Germany was the one who imposed the embargo.
Concretely, the S26T submarine requires three MTU396 diesel engines, which must be purchased from the German company, Motoren und Turbinen Union GmbH, where the three engines will be used to run the submarine's electric generator.
And as you might have guessed, the German government refused to ship MTU machines to China. Germany's defense attache to the Kingdom of Thailand, Philipp Doert in an open letter to The Bangkok Post, confirmed his government's decision to reject the use of engines from Germany for Chinese-built submarines.
“Exports are rejected because they are used for Chinese military/defense industrial goods,” he wrote.
He added, “China did not coordinate with Germany before signing the contract with Thailand, and immediately offered German MTU engines as part of their product.”
Germany is bound by the EU arms embargo imposed on China in 1989, particularly after the Tiananmen Square massacre, when Chinese security forces opened fire on unarmed protesters in Beijing. China claims that 200 civilians died in the tragedy, but some independent estimates put the death toll in the thousands.
Despite the embargo, Germany and other EU countries have in fact been supplying the Chinese military with machinery and other equipment for decades, said Jon Grevatt, a Bangkok-based analyst who covers the Asia-Pacific region for defense industry publication Janes.
Data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reveals that the MTU engines alone have been installed on Chinese destroyers and submarines with more than 100 units from 1993 to 2020.
If Germany insists not to sell MTU engines, the future of the S26T submarine will be in jeopardy. The reason is, replacing the German-designed engine will be related to integration and the whole system is interrelated.
China may offer a replacement engine that is produced in-house, but again, the Thai Navy will not necessarily approve it.
In the aftermath of the delay in the S26T submarine program, China has wooed Thailand by offering a grant for the Type 035B Ming Class or Type 039 Song Class diesel-electric submarine which is still in operation by the Chinese Navy.
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However, Rear Admiral Apichai Sompolgrunk, Director General of the Thai Navy's Acquisition Management, stated that it was not interested in the options offered by China.
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