On May 30, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries announced that it had signed a commercial agreement for a “strategic partnership” with the Portuguese Navy at the “International Maritime Defense Industry Exhibition (MADEX) 2025” held at BEXCO, Busan.
Portugal is interested in deploying at least two new “small” submarines with a displacement of around 1,000 tons. For its part, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has an 800-tonne submarine project and a 1,500-tonne project that might be of interest to Lisbon’s Navy.
The new submarines are expected to be put online by the end of the current decade.
The Portuguese Navy needs to strengthen its defense and surveillance capabilities of the main shipping routes in the Atlantic Ocean, but also of Portuguese waters.
Currently, the Portuguese submarine component is limited to just two vessels, Tridente and Arpao, which have been in operation since 2010 and 2011; these are too few to meet the present requirements of near-continuous surveillance of critical subsea infrastructure like pipelines and optical fibre cables that are exposed to sabotage operations.
This has led the Portuguese Navy to consider a “change of course” by doubling the number of submarines from the South Korean manufacturing industry, which is competitive in terms of price and product quality and offers quick delivery times.
Source and photo credit: HD Hyundai Heavy Industries
