Romania’s parliament has approved the purchase of a pair of Scorpene-class diesel submarines made by French defense giant and one of the world’s leading military shipbuilders Naval Group. Bucharest will also buy a pair of used but modernized minesweepers from London under an intergovernmental G2G agreement with the UK. This was reported by Defense Romania, giving some details.
The submarine procurement program for the Romanian Navy (“Submarines against surface and underwater threats”) is designed for 8 years and is estimated at 2 billion euros. These submarines are built by the French for export, as their fleet uses nuclear submarines. The Scorpene are in service with the navies of Chile, Brazil, India and Malaysia.
In addition to the submarines themselves, the mentioned program includes: torpedoes, logistics, repair, test and encryption equipment, personnel support and training, including combat use.
The publication recalls that in July 2022, former Romanian Defense Minister Vasile Dincu announced Bucharest’s intention to acquire these French submarines. Then France and Romania signed a document of intent, which has now started to be implemented.
Also, according to the publication, Naval Group participates in the Multifunctional Corvette program. In 2019, the merger of Constanța Naval Shipyard (Șantierul Naval Constanța) and Naval Group was declared the winner, and the French were to proceed with the construction of four corvettes in Romania. But due to financial reasons and due to deep misunderstandings (disagreements) that arose, an impasse developed between Șantierul Naval Constanța and Naval Group. Despite the fact that the Romanian Ministry of National Defense repeatedly offered to sign the contract, this never happened.
Photos used: Florian Wöhrl/wikimedia.org
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