Due to a lack of funding the submarine has been inactive since 1995; it is kept in reserve docked in the military sector of the Port of Constanța.

[1] In the early 1980s, the Romanian Naval Forces expressed the need for a submarine to train the anti-submarine vessels of the fleet.

[2] The Chinese government made an offer for six Type 33 submarines, two built in China (one with Romanian workers) and four in Romania.

[1] However, the Type 33 was an obsolete design and the Romanian government decided to purchase Soviet equipment.

After 2001, the submarine was transferred to the "Mircea cel Bătrân" Naval Academy, being used as a training ship.