Taiwanese 130 ton Special Forces midget submarine design
The recent uncertainty of US foreign policy regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan (Republic of China) reminds us the Taiwanese Navy’s embattled acquisition program. In 2014 the HARD ROC 2.0 report by the US Strategic and Budget Assessment Center recommended that Taiwan instead concentrate on building a large fleet of some 42 midget submarines. This 350 ton design is most likely in response to this.... Read More >....
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SEALION and Alligator stealth boats
SEALION Combatant Craft Heavy (CCH) 
Various ‘stealth boats’ have been trailed by Naval Special Warfare (NSW, now part of USSOCOM) for use by the Special Boats Units and SEALs. Although always under the radar, several types have been noticed by bystanders over the years. More recently USSOCOM has sought to operationalize the SEALION family of semi-submersible ‘stealth boats’ as the Combatant Craft Heavy. This article builds on the popular post on the old Covert Shores Blog.Read More >....
Norway_Type-212
Norway selects German Type-212 submarine
In a surprise move, Norway has stopped its submarine selection competition and selected a German Type-212 derived design offered by Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS)... Read More >....
CosMoS CE4F SDV
Revealed: Turkey's secret Italian SDV
CE4F article originally posted 22nd July 2016. Info on Turkey added 29th Jan 2017
The CE4F was the last and most secret Swimmer Delivery Vehicle (SDV) built by the famed manufacturer Cos.Mo.S based in Livorno, Italy. The original customer, and only known operator, was the Turkish SAT (Su Altı Taarruz) Special Forces.... Read More >....
Cold War Intelligence Doc
Analysis of Soviet Cold War Intelligence document on Naval Special Forces
Organizing Combat Against Underwater Sabotage Forces and Means in Naval Theaters
This is an analysis of a document found on the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) (here) which is in fact an American translation of a secret Russian document originally dating from 1965. The original document was part of the SECRET Russian Defense Ministry Publication Collection of Articles of the Journal ‘Military Thought’. The translation was circulated within the CIA in 1978 as part of the Military Thought (USSR) series of Top Secret briefings. In the document (direct link), its author Capt. G Ditskiy describes the past and present (as-of 1965) combat swimmer operations and technology, and lays out that countering these forces is critically important in wartime. He also points out the key weaknesses of Soviet capabilities as he saw them..... Read More >....
Secret History - the Soviet submarine gap
Originally posted 13tth Dec 2014.
Updated with infor from CIA CREST archives. 
After WW2 those with Top Secret clearances in UK and US were concerned that Russia was building a fleet of midget submarines which could deal a deadly blow to NATO navies in the opening moments of World War Three. Declassified documents found in the National Archives (UK) and CIA FOIA Reading Room (US) shed interesting light on these fears.
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South_Asia_CASD
Related: 
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Nuclear Missile submarines
World survey of AIP submarines
North Korean Gorae Class SSB 
INS Arihant SSBN
SubSkimmer
The SubSkimmer is possibly one of the most innovative underwater craft ever designed for the infiltration of Special Forces. It combines the characteristics of a rigid-inflatable (RIB) with an underwater scooter and is better understood as a submersible boat rather than a typical Swimmer Delivery vehicle (SDV). First built in the early 1980s, it has been widely exported and version are still in production today..... Read More >....
Nuclear Missile Submarines
First posted 18th June 2016. + The dynamics of at-sea nuclear deterrence have completely changed since the end of the Cold War. In those 25 years the total number of active ballistic missile submarines has more than halved, but three additional countries have joined the club.... Read More >....
Submarine_Cutaways
