South Korea intensifies campaign to win Canada’s Arctic submarine contract with its KSS-III.

South Korea has ramped up diplomatic and industrial efforts to convince Canada to choose its KSS-III submarine for the country’s Arctic patrol fleet. The campaign underscores Seoul’s growing ambitions in global defense exports and Canada’s need for under-ice operational capability.

South Korea is mounting an assertive campaign to secure Canada’s next-generation submarine deal, positioning Hanwha Ocean’s KSS-III as the ideal Arctic-capable platform. Following Ottawa’s August 2025 decision to shortlist Hanwha Ocean and Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems for the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project, Seoul has expanded its defense outreach through government talks, shipyard demonstrations, and industrial collaboration proposals. Officials familiar with the process describe the move as part of South Korea’s broader effort to establish itself as a trusted defense supplier among Western allies.
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KSS III Batch II is a 4,000-ton AIP sub with lithium-ion batteries, six 533 mm tubes, and 10 VLS for long-range strike (Picture source: South Korean MoD/ Hanwha Ocean).

Canada needs Arctic-capable submarines to assert sovereignty across the Northwest Passage, monitor under-ice activity, and quietly deter foreign incursions in waters that are opening to more traffic as sea ice recedes. Only a stealthy, persistent undersea presence can map and protect seabed infrastructure, track adversary submarines transiting the High North, and generate the intelligence that surface ships, aircraft, and satellites cannot collect beneath the ice. Submarines also give Ottawa credible options for signals intelligence, special operations support, and covert patrols in narrow straits where detection risk is high. They strengthen NORAD’s evolving underwater domain awareness, improve anti-submarine training with allies, and provide a strategic veto by complicating any adversary’s planning. The aging, availability-challenged fleet Canada fields today cannot sustain that posture, leaving surveillance gaps over vast approaches to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic. Renewing an Arctic-capable, conventionally powered undersea force is therefore essential to persistent presence, credible deterrence, and the protection of Canada’s sovereign rights in the North.

Since that down-select, South Korea has gone on offense to win the contract. Hanwha signed an exclusive teaming agreement with Babcock Canada for in-service support, flew Canadian officials through its Geoje shipyard, and has been advertising an accelerated training pipeline that would qualify Royal Canadian Navy crews in Korea before handover. Press in Seoul reported a Canadian working-level team at Geoje in late October and even floated a prime ministerial yard visit, while defense trade outlets quoted Hanwha promising four hulls before 2035 if contracted in 2026.

Hanwha executives are courting Ottawa with a trade deal that includes Canadian steel procurement for naval and commercial shipbuilding, prospective LNG arrangements, and partnerships with domestic space players such as Telesat and MDA. The South Korean side also frames itself as a structurally reliable defense supplier, arguing Europe could dial down military budgets when security pressures recede, while Seoul faces persistent threats that keep its own production lines hot and its sustainment base stable. Germany and Norway, for their part, are leveraging ministerial-level engagement in Ottawa and the promise of deep NATO interoperability to press their case.

On raw specifications, the KSS III Batch II is the heavyweight. The first Batch II boat, ROKS Jang Yeong-sil, launched on October 22, 2025 with a published 3,600-ton surface and 4,000-ton submerged displacement, 89.4-meter length, 9.7-meter beam, and 7.6-meter draft. Propulsion marries three MTU 12V 4000 U83 diesels to Bumhan PH1 fuel-cell AIP and a full lithium-ion battery pack, a combination that boosts high-speed submerged sprint and extends silent running. South Korea quotes 20 knots submerged speed and roughly 18,500 kilometers surfaced range. Armament is where KSS III separates itself: six 533 mm tubes for K-761 Tiger Shark heavyweight torpedoes and C-Star anti-ship missiles, plus ten vertical launch cells sized for Hyunmoo-4-4 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Babcock’s water-ram Weapons Handling and Launch System ties the magazine together.

Batch II also keeps the Batch I AIP while upgrading to proven lithium-ion cells, a design choice that matters in Canada’s long patrol geometry. Lithium-ion reduces recharge cycles and sustains higher hotel loads for sensors, while AIP keeps the boat off the snorkel for days at a time. Korean sources and independent naval analysis note that Batch II grows from six to ten VLS cells and is intended to carry future Chonryong land-attack cruise missiles alongside the SLBM, which would give Canada a stealthy conventional strike option from northern waters without betraying position. It is a blunt instrument compared to European designs, but one that answers the RCN’s desire for presence and deterrence in both oceans.

The Type 212CD takes a different path: it is a larger, stealth-optimized evolution of the 212A that lives under active sonar and survives by vanishing. TKMS and Norway’s program data place the 212CD at about 73 meters in length, 10 meters in beam, and roughly 2,500 tons surfaced, 2,800 tons submerged. Endurance is stated at around 41 days with speed above 20 knots submerged. Propulsion centers on HDW’s fourth-generation PEM fuel-cell AIP backed by two MTU 4000-series diesels, with lithium batteries planned as the baseline energy store. The hull adopts a diamond cross-section to reduce active sonar returns, and the combat system is KTA Naval Systems’ ORCCA, built by TKMS, Atlas Elektronik, and Kongsberg for high-volume sensor fusion and allied interoperability.

HENSOLDT is delivering twin non-penetrating optronic masts, the OMS-150 and OMS-300, plus a 360-degree panoramic surveillance suite, while Kongsberg provides the SA9510S MkII mine-avoidance and navigation sonar along with echo sounders for high-latitude work. For weapons, Germany and Norway standardize on DM2A4 SeaHake heavyweight torpedoes with provision for the IDAS anti-air/close-in missile under development, a path that trades vertical launch capacity for extreme discretion and quieting. For Canada, the 212CD offer is also bundled to a broader German-Norwegian production and sustainment partnership that could share training, spares, and through-life upgrades.

What Canada must decide is less Europe versus Asia than the concept of operations. KSS III brings magazine depth and a vertical battery for immediate strike relevance in the North Atlantic and Western Pacific. Its lithium-ion plus AIP stack is already sailing, and Hanwha is signaling capacity to hit Canada’s 2035 initial delivery objective if Ottawa moves next year. The 212CD counters with the quietest non-nuclear acoustic signature on offer, a stealth hull meant to defeat active sonar in contested littorals, and a NATO-nested combat system and sensor suite already funded by Berlin and Oslo. German and Norwegian ministers are lobbying openly, offering industrial reciprocity and even local Canadian build options, while Korean executives are matching with aggressive delivery schedules, Canadian teaming, and site visits calibrated to show industrial capabilities.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.