I am not an expert on the engines but to my knowledge submarine diesel engines (of the gen-sets) used to have specially designed parts and accessories that enables to operate with less noise emissions and in different inlet-outlet pressure conditions. However, in latest years MTU has began to recommend and adapted a commonly utilized surface ship gen-set diesel engine for submarines, again with customization (should be heavy to my understanding).By exploiting the so-called "dual-use technology", for one:
German technology found in China's warships: report – DW – 11/06/2021
Engines developed in Germany can evade export control bans due to their status as a so-called dual-use technology, a German media investigation has revealed.www.dw.com
If - God forbid - this happens, we will probably see that the publicized specs will only vaguely mention the engine, or that it will say ‘Chinese-made engine’ on paper.
The latter one is what china may purchase under dual use scheme (eventhough the genset is military version, it has a commercial variant), but for the parts which enable engine to be suitable for submarine applications will still be subjected to strict regulations. Black market options always exist though.
But for the S26T, China used to offer their locally made engine (likely a variant of a reverse engineered commercial engine that used to be license produced, and converted for submarine) but it has performed poorly, possibly not only for noise levels but also the bulk performance. It has been more than a decade since then and through brute force China must have proceeded in the technology and know-how of the submarine diesel engines.
I am not afraid or questioning of what China might have had in the future, i am more afraid of what they had poorly 10 years ago and might have significantly matured and developed it into something that we shouldn't ridicule.
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