Like South Korea, the Turkish authorities have ininvested considerably in the development of their Defense industry for several years, in order to achieve, as quickly as possible, a certain form of strategic autonomy regarding Defense equipment. Numerous programs have emerged in terms of armored vehicles with the Altay tank, combat ships with the MILGEM program,combat aircraft with the TFX or even helicopters with the T129. It is now the turn of the submarines to focus the efforts of Ankara, which has just made official the MILDEN program, intended to design and build, by 2035, a new class of locally made AIP submarines.
To do this, and as was the case in South Korea with the program with the Dosan Ahn Chang-oh class also called KS-III, the Turkish admiralty intends to rely on technology transfers linked to the ongoing construction of the 6 Type 214 submarines of the Reis class. In 2011, Ankara awarded TKMS a contract valued at $2,5 billion for the construction of 6 Type 214 AIP submarines intended to replace the 6 Type 209 units of the Atilay class still in service in the Turkish Navy. Among Ankara's demands were significant modifications aimed at using technologies and equipment from the local defense industry, with, as a result, a significant technological transfer.
If the construction of the Reis class has fallen behind schedule, the construction of the first unit having only started in 2015, and should not be completed until 2021, it seems that the Turkish Admiralty now has sufficient confidence in the capabilities of its own industry to begin the development of its own model, which will be intended to replace the 8 Type 209 submarines in service in the Turkish Navy of the Preveze and Gür class, which entered service between 1994 and 2007, so to maintain a fleet of 14 modern submarines.
As was the case with, for example, the F16s in service with the Turkish air forces, Turkish industry has also increased its skills in the field of submarines by ensuring the maintenance, and especially the modernization, of submarines. Type 209 in service in its fleet. This notably allowed Ankara to propose to Islamabad the modernization of the Agusta submarines acquired in the 90s from France, but which Paris now refuses to modernize. In fact, the Turkish authorities know that they can count on at least one probable future customer for its new class of AIP submarines, as was the case for the Ada corvettes of the MILGEM program, and T-129 Attak helicopters.
With the arrival of South Korean, Turkish, Spanish, but also Chinese and probably Indian submarines on the international market, and despite the significant increase in demand observed, the three major European manufacturers, TKMS, Kockum and Naval Group, will have to be more inventive to succeed in positioning their models in international competitions. For Naval Group, which does not have the luxury of being able to rely on national orders for conventionally powered submarines, the road is likely to be very difficult, notwithstanding the know-how inherited from the SSN and of French SSBN. More than ever, and despite the sometimes severe antagonisms which may persist between European groups, the consolidation of supply on a European scale seems to be the only alternative to survive the supply war which is looming in the years to come. come into the field of Defense shipbuilding.