SUBMARINE FLEET

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 406, 15 December 1932, Page 3

SUBMARINE FLEET

HEAYY BUILDING PROGRAMME UNDERTAKEN DURING YEAR. France's subxnarine armada, already the most powerful in the world, is heing* heavily reinforced during the current year, writss Hector Bywater in the London Daily Telegraph. Fii'teen new boats of the largest type will be commissioned shortly. Four others of the some class ara soon to be launehed. j Besides these ocean-going craft, ] many smaller undersea craft are due to hoist Ihe Tricolour this year. Twenty have already been completed or are finbhing* their trials. Fourteen more ara under eonstruction. Finally four mine-layeing subarinos are ahout to enter service. In all about twenty-five new suhmarines will have been added to the existing floot before next January — and average of rather more than two per montli. They represent an incremen of not less than 24,000 tons. j In the last eight years Franca has j laid down 60 submarines, or nearlyi three timss as many as have been • huilt for the British Navy in the! same pariod. Of this total many ara ocean-going vessels of 1380 tons, with a speed of eighteen knots and a eruising* endurance of 30 days, equi- , valent to a continuous voyage of 0000 j miles. The other submarines com- ; pri?e: — | Nine of 074 tons, five mine-layers ' of 670 tons, and 31 coastal boats, ave- : raging 5G0 tons. All these craft posses a wide radius of action. Every new suhmarine is dispatched on an enduranca cruise, lasting five or six weeks, as soon as she has run her trials. In spite of the severity of this test, it is very rara for a new i boat to report any defect. - Owing perhaps to congestion of work in tlie shipyai'ds no new subma- , rines wero included in the 1031-32 programme. Next year, however, con-triKti.-n to be renumed. The Freneli Navy Law provides for an ostabllshment of 90,000 tons of ocean-going ar.d 30,000 tons of coastal submarines. At the present rate of construetion this enormous undersea fleet of nearly 130,000 tons will be completed at no very distant dale. For some years past Italy has been sct'ond only to France in the subma- i rine building rr.ee. Fifty-four Italian boats ahev been laid down in the last seven years, r.o fe\V'>r than twenty- ' two, with an aggregate of 18,000 tons, having been put on the stoeks of 1931 alone. In contrast to the eventual French total of 129,000 tons, and the Italian aggregate of 50,000 tons, which will probably be increased in the next few years), it rray be pointed out that under the London Treaty the British F.mpire, the United Statcs, and Japan are each limited to a msximum of 52,700 tons of sabmarine craft.