Let me partially answer that, as my team is involved in this process.
Indeed, the goal is to obtain up to 12 conventional propulsion submarines, in part to patrol our three maritime coasts, including the Arctic. Two companies are currently in the running, a German company and a South Korean company.
To answer your question, our goal is to have armed submarines. We have to make sure we have what we call “domain awareness”. A submarine has a lot of capabilities to know what's going on in the field. It's also important to make sure that we can defend ourselves or repel adversaries, if necessary.
As for the timelines, I'm not in a position to tell you exactly when a contract will be signed or when a decision will be made by the government, but the goal is to have the first submarine delivered and operational by 2035.