Henan Diesel Engine Co., Ltd (HND), a marine diesel engine developer, is part of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), a state-owned marine industry conglomerate of the People's Republic of China, published news and photos on their website that
the CHD620V16H6 diesel engine has successfully passed the National Military Standard (GJB(Guo-jia Jun-yong)) certification on July 27, 2023, published on August 8, 2023.
CHD620V16H6 is a submarine version of HND China's CHD620 diesel engine, which has been identified for more than a year. It's been 5 years (since 2018). However, at the time of writing this article, the news and images on the HND official website are no longer accessible.
Chinese online social media platform Weibo has had users copying images and spreading the news. Foreign military analysts believe that the Chinese CHD620V16H6 diesel engine will replace the MTU 16V 396 SE84 diesel engine for German submarines.
Germany has refused to export dual-use devices to China following the 2020 European Union (EU) sanctions imposed. Production of all MTU 396 diesel engines has been discontinued from 2020 as well that makes Chinese-style submarines equipped with diesel engine propulsion MTU16V396SE84 such as Type 039A/B/C/D (NATO) diesel-electric attack (SSK) submarines (class coded Yuan) built after this will have to be replaced with a CHD620V16H6 diesel engine.
China has claimed that CHD 620 electric-powered diesel engines have been used on surface warships of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) such as its own aircraft carrier (Type 002 CV-17 Shandong), and Type 003 CV-18 Fujian).
However, it is believed that the CHD620V16H6 diesel engine will be installed on eight Hangor-class submarines of the Pakistan Navy based on the Type 039B submarines.
Following Germany's refusal to export MTU 396 engines to China, the first four Hangor-class submarines are being built at Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group (WSIG) in China and the latter four at the Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KS&EW) in China. Pakistan has been delayed by waiting to install the engine.
Like the S26T submarine for the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) since the first boat keel was laid on September 5, 2019, boat building was delayed due to the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020.
Later, there was a problem with the MTU 396 engine Germany, the result of long negotiations and investigations. in June 2023, it is reported that the Royal Thai Navy has accepted the CHD 620 engine as well as Pakistan.
But even if the CHD620 engine is accepted for the S26T submarine, the construction of the ship will still be delayed at least 40 months from the original delivery schedule in 2023 this is the year.
(AAG)