Hyperreality , 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

the countries that still use those just don’t have enough money to maintain a nuclear sub fleet

IRC the French have at least one diesel sub, the SMX-Ocean Range 30,000km.

They also have modern battery tech, the money and the tech to maintain/build nuclear subs. They have existing nuclear subs. The SMX-Ocean is actually quite modern. 2017 I think. Certainly more modern than most existing nuclear subs.

it’s cost efficiency not “better”.

Here's an article which explains why modern diesel subs can be quieter than nuclear subs:

https://navalpost.com/nuclear-submarines-diesel-electric-submarines-noise-level/

they are slow compared to nuclear subs

I googled. 20 knots for the SMX-Ocean. 25 for France's nuclear subs. Not a huge difference.