The mad and murky world of submarines in Asia-Pacific (Opinion)
South Korea has built a number of conventional submarines such as this KSS-II, originally relying on German help.
Whatever problems can go wrong with military acquisitions, submarines seem to have ticked all the boxes in the Indo-Pacific region.
More than any other military platform in the Indo-Pacific, submarines seem to engender all manner of turmoil, head-scratching decisions, chicanery and corporate hanky-panky.
Whether it is OEMs illegally stealing designs and hawking them as their own, ill-equipped navies regarding submarines as their saviour in the battle for credibility, submarine acquisitions that are birthed and murdered by mind-boggling bureaucracy, or submariners who are too afraid to put to sea, Asia-Pacific has them all.
Indonesia is a good place to start. The Indonesian Navy suffered the tragic loss of KRI Nanggala on 21 April 2021, leaving the fleet with one Cakra-class
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