What does "Sandlance variant mean?
Submarines, like other naval ships, are built in "classes". Each class is named after the first ship of the class. Even though all members of a class are largely identical, as new technology is introduced, "variants" of the class occur.
- For example, there are nine different variants of the "Balao" class:
- Balao (SS 285 - 291)
- Devilfish (SS 291 - 297)
- Lionfish (SS 298 - 299, SS 308 - 312)
- Moray (SS 300 - 303)
- Seahorse (SS 304 - 307)
- Perch (SS 313 - 352, SS 362 - 378)
- Sandlance (SS 381 - 404)
- Sea Owl (SS 405 - 410)
- Spadefish (SS 411 - 416)
Sources: Christley