"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
08/01/2015 at 18:41 • Filed to: Saab, Submarines, Skulduggery, Putin, U Boat
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"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
08/01/2015 at 18:41 • Filed to: Saab, Submarines, Skulduggery, Putin, U Boat | 1
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No, not necessarily like this unfortunate 900.
Saab, as we know, began by making aircraft. They no longer make commercial planes.
They moved into cars. That didn’t end well.
They merged with Scania and then demerged.
So what’s left?
Well, they still do military aircraft and things to attach to military aircraft. They’ve just spread their wings a little and got into matters nautical by taking on the submarine trade. Yes, Saab are going to make ubåtor (think U Boats, but in Swedish).
There’s a story attached to this which involves intrigue, skulduggery, the army and that nice Mr Putin. You’ll remember that Sweden may or may not have ongoing problems with a Russian submarine infestation and occasionally goes on a fruitless search for unauthorised foreign ubåtor. Concidentally or not the Navy have now been allowed to buy more submarines and so the contract for two shiny new models was given to a yard in Malmö, Kockums.
Models just like this one:
Kockums were owned by a German conglomerate, Thyssen Krupp, who inherited them when they took over a German shipbuilder (HDW, who built U boats in WW1 and WW2). Thyssens duly said “dankeschön” and announced their intention to build the new ubåtor in Germany, because cheaper. The Swedes were unamused and formed the opinion that Thyssen were determined to close Kockums who had been a competitor in the underwater trade. They decided, in a polite Swedish way, that they were going to have ubåtor, not U Boote. Steps were taken. Saab were delegated to poach Kockums’ senior employees and the Swedish military invaded the yard to retrieve information deemed to be in the national interest.
Thyssen took the hint and sold Kockums to Saab.
On a related note, one of Kockums’ older models was loaned to the US Navy, who have amused themselves by trying to find it in exercises and have amused the Swedes by frequently failing to do so.
On a cynical note, it has been claimed that reports of the furtive wanderings of Putin’s underwater warriors (not that anyone has directly accused the Russians of course) were invented by the Navy so as to justify expensive new toys to replace those lost when they were downsized after the Cold War.
For Sweden
> Cé hé sin
08/01/2015 at 18:48 |
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I knew they handled like boats.
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Cé hé sin
> For Sweden
08/01/2015 at 18:49 |
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Not that one though. It sank.
Very poor antifouling too.
Rainbow
> Cé hé sin
08/01/2015 at 19:02 |
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I thought only Rolls Royce offered mother of pearl accents.