At a ceremony held at the Changi Naval Base on 24 September, in the presence of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, the Singapore Navy commissioned 2 of the 4 TYPE 218SG (INVINCIBLE-class) submarines, built in Kiel by German company Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems/TKMS. INVINCIBLE and IMPECCABLE (pictured) arrived in the city-state in July and August, carried by semi-submersible heavy lift vessels.

Two more vessels - ILLUSTRIOUS and INIMITABLE - are being built and outfitted in Germany and are expected to arrive in Singapore by 2028. The INVINCIBLE-class submarines have a surface displacement of 2,000t, and2,200t when submerged, and are thus larger than the U-212A and -214 type vessels built in different configurations for various European navies. They are 70 m long and their armament includes 8 533 mm launch tubes for the deployment of heavy torpedoes (probably Leonardo's BLACK SHARKs) and, probably, anti-ship and environment-changing missiles and mines. The INVINCIBLE-class is designed for the release/recovery of special forces operators, through a structure called HMPL (Horizontal Multi-Purpose airLock), located in the forward section of the hull.

The propulsion system is diesel-electric, but also includes an AIP system with fuel cells; the operational management system and the electronic and electro-acoustic equipment are mostly of German supply (Atlas Elektronik), but include systems developed locally by Singapore Technologies Engineering Electronics and Elt Group for operations in the maritime segment of the electromagnetic dimension.

Colonel Fong Chi Onn, commander of the Singapore Navy's 7th Flotilla (some ranks are similar to those of the air and land forces), said that the requirements for the INVINCIBLE-class submarines were defined through 25 years of experience gained from operations in maritime areas characterised by high temperature and salinity, shallow water and high density of commercial traffic.

Among the peculiar requirements of the new submarines are an accentuated level of automation, which has made it possible to reduce the number of crew members to 28 (compared to the approximately 35 of the Swedish submarines still in service), and an increase in submerged range (thanks to the aforementioned AIP system), manoeuvrability (by virtue of the X-shaped aft steering surfaces), the care taken to reduce acoustic signatures, the improvement of crew accommodation and the ergonomic optimisation of systems and equipment.

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