Six subs for INR500b for Indian Navy

The Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister A K Antony, has set a project for six new-generation submarines worth over INR500 billion for the Indian Navy, out which three will be constructed in India with the help of a foreign collaborator, reports the Times of India (TOI)

“The other two submarines will either be imported from the foreign vendor directly or constructed at a private shipyard in India. Fresh estimates show each of these six diesel-electric submarines will cost almost Rs8,500 crore,” a source said.

TOI reports that under the programme—called Project-75 India (P-75I)—apart from stealth, land-attack capability and the ability to incorporate futuristic technologies, all the new submarines will be equipped with air-independent propulsion systems to boost their operational capabilities.

The selection of the foreign collaborator for P-75I will take time because a RFP (request for proposal) will first have to be issued to submarine manufacturers, according to TOI. Short listing and detailed technical and commercial negotiations will follow.

According to TOI, the Indian Navy has reasons to be worried as by 2015 it will be left with just half of its present fleet of 15 ageing diesel-electric submarines.  Moreover, it has been hit hard by the almost three-year delay in the ongoing Project-75 for six French Scorpene submarines with price escalation pushing the total cost beyond INR200 billion crore, as was first reported by TOI.

Pakistan, incidentally, already has its first Mesma AIP-equipped submarine, PNS Hamza, the third of the French Agosta-90B submarines it has inducted since 1999. It is now looking to induct three advanced Type-214 German submarines with AIP. China, in turn, has 62 submarines, with 10 of them being nuclear-powered.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2010.