After the Second World War was the Dutch submarine fleet almost reduced to nothing. In the next period depended the navy on submarines of British and American origin. In the meantime were designs made to produce an own submarine using a so-called 3 cylinder design. The N.V. Nederlandsche Vereenigde Scheepsbouw Bureaux (Nevesbu-[Netherlands United Shipbuilding Offices) in which the Royal Netherlands navy and the major Dutch shipyards were represented made some potential designs. On design project 1078 was offered by Nevesbu in October 1951 to the French navy as an alternative for the French Aurora-class.
Both submarines were compared with each other:
Project 2078 69,60 x 7,0 metres and a displacement of 979 (surface in metrical tons)-Geneva displacement 805 (in British tons)-1.271 (submerged in metrical tons) tons.
For the Aurore-class were the figures 73,50 x 6,50 metres and 893-805-1.170 tons. Both submarines had a diving depth of 100 metres. The armament was similar, namely 8 torpedo tubes, 1-10cm gun and 1x2-13,2mm machinegun. The tubes of the Project 2078 were all internal in contrary of the Aurore of which just 4 four were internal.
