Malaysian Scorpene Submarines

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Scorpene class submarines are a class of diesel-electric attack submarine. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP), jointly developed by the French company DCNS, formerly DCN, and the Spanish company Navantia (Formerly Bazan, then Izar).

The Royal Malaysian Navy ordered two of the submarines. One of the submarine, KD Tunku Abdul Rahman, sailed from Toulon, France on July 11 and took 54 days to reach Port Klang, making stops at Jeddah, Djibouti and Cochin on the journey, which included 32 days of submersion and 10 days of surfacing. The submarine arrived at KD Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, the naval base in Pulau Indah last Thursday. To read news report about the arrival of the submarine in Malaysia, go HERE.



General characteristics of the Scorpene Submarine:

Type: submarine
Displacement: 1450 tonnes (compact)
                      1,700 tonnes (normal)
                      2,000 tones (AIP)
Length: 59.4 m (compact)
            66.4 m (normal)
            76.2 m (AIP)
Propulsion: Diesel-Electric, Batteries, and AIP
Speed: 20 knots (37 km/h) (submerged)
           12 kn (22 km/h) (surfaced)
Range: 6,500 nautical miles (12,000 km) at 8 knots (surfaced)
           550 nmi (1,020 km) at 5 knots (submerged)
Endurance: 40 days (compact)
                  50 days (normal)
                  50+21 days (AIP)
Test depth: >300 meters
Complement: 31
Armament: 6 x 533-mm torpedo tubes for 18 torpedoes or SM.39 Exocet anti-ship missiles, 30 mines in place of torpedoes