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With the growing fears of the Indian Navy with regards to the depletion of its submarine fleet, the Indian Defence Ministry is fast-tracking global tenders worth $5 billion for the acquisition of six more submarines.
The tender will be issued in the next three months to different shipyards of Russia, United States, Germany and France. Under this project, all the six submarines will be built in India under complete technology transfer. Currently, the Indian Navy is contemplating to shortlist the designated production shipyard between state-owned Mazagon Docks Limited in Mumbai and private major Larsen & Toubro’s newly built shipyard Kakinada in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
The Indian Navy intends to initiate licensed production of the submarine from 2014 and completion of the six new submarines by 2025.
According to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the Indian Navy is falling short of the required number of submarines and is left with an ageing fleet with more than 50 per cent of submarines having completed 75 per cent of their operational life. While some have also outlived their service life, over 60 per cent of the current fleet will complete their service life by 2012, around the time when the first new submarine is scheduled to be inducted, according to the report.
The Indian Navy’s preparedness will definitely be hampered without the induction of fresh submarines and India needs roughly 18 submarines that can fire missiles underwater. The navy’s projection of the need for the required number of submarines is based on geographic locations and other strategic aspects like threat perception along the coastline.
Indian Navy sources said that India and Russia are already discussing the acquisition of the ‘Amur’ class submarine for the past four years which are known as successors to the Indian Navy’s kilo class submarines.
Currently, the Indian Navy deploys 16 submarines, most of which are kilo class submarines acquired from erstwhile USSR and Russia. The latest induction include the four ‘Shishumar’ class Type 209/1500 units and ten ‘Sindhugosh’ class (Kilo class). Type 877EM vessels are being upgraded to launch Klub/3M-54E Alfa cruise missiles. Two aging Foxtrot-class boats will be replaced with six Scorpène submarines currently under construction at Mazagon Docks Limited. In addition, India’s indigenous nuclear submarine called the Advanced technology Vehicle is also being built with Russian assistance.
The need for new submarines is more pronounced since the process of refitting the submarines has been an uphill task. While Indian dockyards have insufficient resources and infrastructure to refit the submarines, India needs Russian expertise to implement the refits at Russian dockyards. The escalation in the prices of spares has severely hampered the refits of the Kilo class submarines which are becoming old. Added to that is the crucial technical aspect of the high precision K class missile system which has to meet the desired pre-requisite.
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