Undersea Watch

Prasun K. Sengupta

A shore-based Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and built by an industrial consortium led by Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) successfully demonstrated a 14-day endurance trial-run to the Indian Navy early last December. The Land-Based Prototype (LBP) is located at the DRDO’s Ambernath-based Naval Materials Research Laboratory (NMRL). Primary performance parametres as per the navy-mandated trial directives were met satisfactorily. The LBP project was sanctioned in August 2010 at a cost of Rs 191.60 crore but has so far consumed about Rs 218 crore. The project is slated for closure this June. The next phase of R&D calls for developing a Marinised Engineered AIP Energy Module (MAREEM), for which Rs 182 crore has been sanctioned since June. MAREEM’s user-trials are expected to concluded by August 2020.

INS Khanderi CM-2000 Scorpene SSK-3

The MAREEM project aims to package the AIP module’s sub-systems, reactant tanks and waste tanks inside the simulated hull section of a CM-2000/Project 75 Scorpene diesel-electric submarine (SSK). The AIP module has in-situ provisioning of hydrogen through hydrolysis of borohydride and oxygen through liquid oxygen. MAREEM’s pre-production floor model (PPFM) has already been tested, while the hull simulated model is presently und