anonymus
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The first generation kilos were much more silent than Los angeles class nuke boats and did not have AIP propulsion. Diesels can easily run silent in noisy littoral waters .Second,the bigger the sub the more the maintainence costs.Also for littoral waters ,diesels without AIP operate marvellously well.
Big is not always better.
It was the older diesels before kilo that were noisy.After Kilo class,Diesels are getting better and better and cost effective too.
While your point regarding improvement in Diesel tech is valid but Nuclear reactors are also improving and at a much better margin than Diesel engines and Diesel engines have reached frontier of their technology while Nuclear tech has much more scope for improvement.
+ maintenance cost has no relation to stealth of a submarine and bigger size means much more space for acoustic shielding and better sensors.