In the course of the 170 years of its existence, the HDW shipyard has continuously adapted its range of products to meet the changing demands of the market and customer requirements.

The core speciality of HDW is design, development and construction of ultra-modern non-nuclear submarines both for the German Navy and for international partner navies all over the world. The units of Class 209, Class 210mod, Class 212A and Class 214 are convincing proof of this expertise, thanks to their high class technical performance abilities and their remarkably long life cycle.

These boats can be built and fully tested as turn-key high-technology products at the company’s shipyard in Kiel or by the customer in his own shipyards, with support from HDW experts.

In additional HDW’s reputation is also founded on the shipyard’s ability to develop and integrate submarine specific systems and equipment.

Outstanding milestones of this developmental work are the HDW weapon tubes, the fuel cell propulsion system and important additional equipment such as the personal safety system HABETaS^®.

Furthermore, HDW has developed an “In-Service Support” (ISS) concept to guarantee operational readiness of HDW submarines all over the world and to ensure that these units meet the highest modern technological demands.

Aside from established features like performance of maintenance or modernisation work, the ISS concept also covers modern issues such as updating construction documents and training modules.