Going All French

Atul Chandra

The Indian Navy (IN) which presently operates three different classes of submarines of French, Russian and German origin, is likely to consolidate this into two separate types, post 2030. The Navy’s undersea arm was heavily orientated towards Russian submarines from the 1970s till about five years ago, when the first of its new Scorpene submarines was inducted in 2017. Its existing fleet of seven Russian-built Kilo Class submarines are likely to remain in service till the early 2030s. The navy also has a fleet of five Scorpene submarines with a sixth due for delivery, along with four Type 1500 diesel-electric submarines of German origin.

In July, the defence acquisition council (DAC) which is headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh, granted its acceptance of necessity (AoN) for the procurement of three additional Scorpene submarines under the Buy (Indian) category. This will increase the Navy’s Scorpene fleet to nine submarines. The ministry of defence (MoD) has stated that the additional submarines would not only help in maintaining the required force level and operational readiness of the IN, but also create significant employment opportunities in the domestic sector. These submarines will also feature higher levels of indigenous content and all three will be built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) under license from French shipbuilder Naval Group.

The MoD had issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the acquisition of six conventional submarines under Project P75 (I) in July 2021. The acquisition cost of these submarines is estimated to be over Rs 43,000 crore and all six are to be equipped with Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) systems. At the present time,