It is not useful to have 12 subs if you cannot man them properly, as said they are struggling to man 4 or 6, so before deciding what sub or what number of subs, they should decide an attractive offer for sailors to join subs crews, either that or you force sailors to go into subs for a part of their career...let´s see if any join the Ran even.
Officially it seems that if you are sub crew you are forced to some months of continuous deployment, this the hardest part of the job, let´s change this part and there will be more sailors that want to join, at the same time if you want to get the better "students" from all Ran sailors into the subs you need an offer of deployment very attractive so that most of Ran sailors apply for the sub.
Sailors don´t have to have fear from accidents in subs, nowadays with the scaping minisubs which connect to the sub at great depth, and the the internal hull of subs is stronger than the external hull, as some conventionals, resisting at more than the sub diving depth. All this in case the release of the sub´s weights doesn´t rise the sub up to surface in the emergency which in modern automated subs is very quick reaction if needed.
If you achieve 12 crews for 12 subs, with a rate of continuous deployment per crew as 1 month per year, you can have operative the same sub during all 12 months making 11 rotations of crews, or have 2 operative subs for 2 6 months missions. Better quality of life, not necessarily in dollars, provides more applications from surface sailors, who knows you might find an Raaf F18 pilot applying for the sub...
It is more important to guarantee that in a sudden conflict you can put 12 subs in the water, than to obtain beneficials from asigning longer and harder continuous deployment per crew which leads to lack of crews, ie lack of the fundamental capability.
How are they going to rotate the crews at sea in an stealth or direct manner? in the same way that they are going to refuel the conventional sub, in a discrete manner for example dressed up as a luxury very fast ship, like Abramovich´s, Briatore´s and company, or a fisher or cargo one etc, it is very plausible as the ocen is so great, and an easy distance of contact between the sub and the ship containing the new crew can be in like 1000 squared kms, almost impossible to detect. Or if simply you just are going to rotate the crew, not refuel the sub, with an hidroplane, or waterplane that can land at sea, and if big enough even to refuel the sub from the hidroplanes (as the counterfire hidroplanes carry much water). Apart you have the option of sending a fleet somewhere to stay there for the time wanted. These options also relief the necessity of a "bigger sub" and so don´t need to evolve any design, as risk rise, or desing a new one too big, as risk rise. And so you can concretate your budget in geeting as many subs as possible, not being conditioned by how big they need to be.
GDP is the only splace left for them.
