After more than two years of development and successful performance trials at Howaldswerke-Deutsche Werft AG in Kiel, the Siemens-Schottel Propulsor (SSP) consortium was granted approval for the new SSP marine propulsion system. Classification society Det Norske Veritas was responsible for technical acceptance of the propulsion system for worldwide service. The SSP is the result of a successful cooperation between two German marine industry stalwarts, Siemens Marine Engineering Subdivision and Messrs Schottel of Spay. Work began in 1997 on the development of a marine propulsion "pod" system that would be offering not only economic advantages, but superior technological performance.