Type 202 submarine

Class overview
Builders	Atlas Werke, Bremen
Operators	German Navy
Built	1961–1966
In commission	1965–1966
Planned	40
Completed	2
Cancelled	38
Retired	2
General characteristics
Type	Midget U-boat
Displacement	100 tonnes (98 long tons), surfaced; 137 tonnes (135 long tons), submerged
Length	23.10 metres (75 ft 9 in)
Beam	3.40 metres (11 ft 2 in)
Draft	2.7 metres (8 ft 10 in)
Propulsion	243 kilowatts (326 hp) diesel-engine 257 kilowatts (345 hp) motor-generator 20 kilowatts (27 hp) silent-running electric motor
Speed	6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph), surfaced; 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph), submerged
Range	400 nautical miles (740 km; 460 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph), surfaced; 160 nautical miles (300 km; 180 mi) at 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph), submerged
Test depth	100 metres (330 ft)
Complement	6
Armament	2 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes, 2 torpedoes or 4 naval mines

The Type 202 submarine was a short lived class of German submarines. Design of these very small submarines started in 1957 by Ingenieurkontor Lübeck (IKL). It was intended to build 40 Type 202 mini submarines with a six-man crew but technical difficulties and doubts about their usefulness reduced them to three, and of those three for trials, to be further reduced to two. The boats were in service only a few months and were scrapped shortly after.

They were one of the few military U-boats not bearing "U-numbers", probably since they were never intended for combat use. Instead they were named after important German engineers in submarine constructions (like Wilhelm Bauer).

Hans Techel was built with traditional propeller and rudders (similar to the Type 205 submarines), but Friedrich Schürer had a rotatable Kort nozzle instead.

List of ships

References

• Karr, Hans (2014). Deutsche Uboote seit 1956 (in German). Stuttgart: Motorbuch. ISBN 9783613037083.
• Die U-Boote der Marine seit 1955 - Spiegel online (in German)
• Die deutsche U-Boot Waffe Archived 2008-12-07 at the Wayback Machine - www.die-marine.de
• Klasse 202 oecd.de