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In a major boost to the Navy, grappling with dwindling submarine
strength, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved of a
proposal to build six conventional diesel-electric submarines
indigenously. The project cost has been estimated at Rs. 50,000 crore.
The original plan was to have a global tender with two submarines built
in a foreign shipyard and the rest in India.
Now all six submarines will be built in a single Indian shipyard within
the country under the “Make in India” category with foreign collaboration.
The council has decided to set up a committee to decide on the shipyards
to be issued the Request for Proposal (RFP).
The shipyards compliant will be identified within two months.
These submarines will have air-independent propulsion for extended
submergence, land attack missile capability and stealth features. The
Navy is currently making do with 14 submarines.
In a Rs. 3,200-crore deal, Mr. Jaitley has taken a call to go ahead with
Israel-made Rafael’s Spike anti-tank guided missiles, rather than take
forward the U.S. offer of joint production of Javelin missiles.
The deal includes 8,000-plus missiles, 300-plus launchers and requisite
technology transfer to Bharat Dynamics Ltd. (BDL) to build them
indigenously. Spike is a third-generation, fire-and-forget, man-portable
anti-tank missile. It is intended to equip the 382 Infantry battalions
and subsequently the mechanised forces.
The major deals include 363 new BMP-2/2k infantry vehicles to be built
by the Ordnance Factory in Medak, Telangana, at a cost of Rs. 1,800
crore and a repeat order of 12 Dorniers, with enhanced sensors, for the
Navy to be built by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) at a cost of Rs.
1,850 crore. The Navy currently operates over 40 of them.
An amount of Rs. 740 crore was allotted for 1,768 critical rolling stock
wagons used to transport equipment by the Army to replace the existing
ones which are more than 30 years old. Five and 7.5 tonne radio relay
containers, which are mounted on vehicles with communication equipment,
worth Rs. 662 crore were cleared for which Acceptance of Necessity (AON)
will be issued soon to domestic manufacturers.
According to informed sources, a deal to acquire Midget submarines for
the Navy to undertake ‘special operations’ has also been cleared.
Pending deals to acquire heavy torpedoes for the under-construction
Scorpene submarines and 127mm high calibre naval guns for future
warships have been deferred due to technical issues and are likely to be
cleared soon.
Source : Six submarines to be ‘made in India’ | idrw.org
