| Type 205 submarine | |
|---|---|
 Type 205 submarine U-1 (S180) | |
| Class overview | |
| Builders: |
Howaldtswerke, Kiel Copenhagen Naval Dockyard |
| Operators: |
 German Navy Royal Danish Navy |
| Preceded by: | Type 201 submarine |
| Succeeded by: | Type 206 submarine |
| In commission: | 1967–2005 |
| Completed: | 13 |
| Laid up: | 1 |
| Retired: | 9 |
| Preserved: | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine |
| Displacement: |
450 long tons (457 t) surfaced 500 long tons (508 t) submerged |
| Length: | 43.9 m (144 ft) |
| Beam: | 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in) |
| Draft: | 4.3 m (14 ft 1 in) |
| Propulsion: |
2 × 600 hp (450 kW) Mercedes-Benz 4-stroke V12 diesel engines each coupled to a BBC generator 1 × 1,000 kW (1,300 hp) SSW electric motor |
| Speed: |
10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) submerged |
| Range: |
4,200 nmi (7,800 km) at 5 kn (9.3 km/h) surfaced 228 nmi (422 km) at 4 kn (7.4 km/h) submerged |
| Test depth: | 100 m (330 ft) |
| Complement: | 4 officers, 18 enlisted |
| Armament: |
• 8 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes • Torpedoes and naval mines |
The Type 205 was a class of diesel-electric German hunter-killer U-boat submarines. They were single-hull vessels optimized for the use in the shallow Baltic Sea. The Type 205 is a direct evolution of the Type 201 class with lengthened hull, new machinery and sensors. The biggest difference though is that ST-52 steel is used for the pressure hull since the Type 201's non-magnetic steel proved to be problematic. Type 206, the follow-on class, finally succeeded with non-magnetic steel hulls.
The Type 205 was in service with the Royal Danish Navy until 2004, in which it was known as Narhvalen class. The Danish boats differed slightly from the German ones to meet special Danish demands. Responsible for the design and construction was the Ingenieurkontor Lübeck (IKL) headed by Ulrich Gabler.
List of boats[]
| Submarines built for the Bundesmarine: | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pennant number |
Name | Call sign |
Launched | Com- missioned |
Decom- missioned |
Fate |
| S180 | U-1 | June 6, 1967 | November 29, 1991 | scrapped | ||
| S181 | U-2 | October 11, 1966 | March 19, 1993 | scrapped | ||
| S183 | U-4 | November 19, 1962 | August 1, 1974 | scrapped | ||
| S184 | U-5 | July 4, 1963 | May 17, 1974 | scrapped | ||
| S185 | U-6 | July 4, 1963 | August 22, 1974 | scrapped | ||
| S186 | U-7 | March 16, 1964 | September 30, 1965 | scrapped | ||
| S187 | U-8 | July 22, 1964 | October 9, 1974 | scrapped | ||
| S188 | U-9 | April 11, 1967 | June 3, 1993 | Museum ship, Technikmuseum Speyer | ||
| S189 | U-10 | November 28, 1967 | February 16, 1993 | Museum ship, Wilhelmshaven | ||
| S190 | U-11 | DRDE | June 21, 1968 | October 30, 2003 | Museum ship, Burgstaaken, Fehmarn | |
| S191 | U-12 | DRDF | January 14, 1969 | June 21, 2005 | ||
| Submarines built for the Kongelige Dansk Marine: | ||||||
| S320 | Narhvalen | September 10, 1968 | February 27, 1970 | October 16, 2003 | scrapped | |
| S321 | Nordkaperen | December 18, 1969 | December 22, 1970 | February 2, 2004 | scrapped | |
These last two boats were built by the Howaldtswerke, in Denmark at The Naval Dockyard, Copenhagen.
Notes:
- U-1 and U-2 were originally built as Type 201 submarines with pressure hulls made of non-magnetic steel, but were rebuilt as Type 205 with new pressure hulls out of normal steel after corrosion problems and small cracks were detected.
- U-1 was given back to Nordseewerke and was used to test an experimental closed-cycle diesel air-independent propulsion system before being scrapped
- U-11 was transformed to a Type 205A double-hulled boat (the outer hull filled with polystyrene foam to make it unsinkable) and used as torpedo target
- U-12 was used for sonar trials as Type 205B
See also[]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Type 205 submarine. |
External links[]
- Submarines of the Narhvalen class - Danish Naval History
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The original article can be found at Type 205 submarine and the edit history here.