The Swedish shipbuilder is proposing the C71 submarine which is based on the future A26 Blekinge-class (two of which are under production for the Royal Swedish Navy).
Fredrik Gustfason, Vice President Head of Marketing and Product Sales at Saab and Richard Keulen, Director of Naval Sales Support at Damen, answered our questions:
- What are you proposing to the Royal Netherlands Navy ?
- Tell us about the cooperation between Saab and Damen. What kind of local content can you achieve ?
- Is there a sepcific feature in the design that makes the submarine stands out compared to the competition ?
- Is your design future-proof ? For example, can it conduct seabed warfare operations ?
- What are you planning in terms of through-life support of the submarines ?
The interview was recorded during NEDS 2022 on 17 November 2022. (NEDS stands for “NIDV Exhibition Defence & Security” – NIDV stands for “Netherlands Industries for Defence and Security”).
During the event, Naval News interviewed all three contenders as well as the head of DMO (Defense Materiel Organization, the procurement office) about the Walrus-class replacement program:
Interview with the Dutch DMO
Interview with Naval Group
Interview with TKMS
