Indian Navy News & Discussions

[RPK]

Stealth warships to get deadlier IDRW.ORG

The Indian Navy’s prestigious Project 28, the programme to build four of the world’s stealthiest anti-submarine corvettes, is on track to become even more cutting edge. By the end of this month, three international shipbuilders will be bidding to provide Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) with the technology to build a major part of the corvettes — the entire superstructure — with lightweight composites.

By making the superstructure, which is the upper part of the ship that rests on the hull, of lighter composite material, the 2,500-tonne warships will become lighter, stealthier and far more stable in the water. Already acclaimed as world-class warships, composite superstructures will make them amongst the most effective submarine hunters in any of the world’s navies.

Business Standard has learned that the Ministry of Defence will shortly issue tenders to three shipbuilders with extensive experience in fabricating composites. Kockums of Sweden, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), which builds the world’s stealthiest warships, the 650-tonne Visby class corvettes, is a leading contender; also in the fray are Greek shipbuilder, Intermarine; and Korea’s Kangnam Corporation.

With composite materials increasingly crucial to warships, this lucrative tender could open the door for broader partnership with Indian defence shipyards.

The three companies are maintaining a discrete silence for now, but an aide to the spokesperson of TKMS admitted, “India is an interesting market for TKMS at the moment because of the serious attention that the government of India is giving to the technical future of the Indian Navy.”

The first two corvettes of Project 28, which are nearing completion, have already been built with conventional steel superstructures. Subsequent corvettes, that is the third ship onwards, can have composite superstructures. The chairman and managing director of GRSE, Rear Admiral KC Sekhar, told Business Standard during a visit to GRSE in August that, “Composite materials technology can only be incorporated for the third and fourth ships of Project 28. The first corvette is already 90 per cent completed. Eighty per cent of the superstructure is ready for the second corvette.”

All the high technology going into Project 28 is boosting costs; GRSE and the defence ministry are locked in negotiations to finalise a price for the corvettes. Since 2003, when the order was placed, GRSE has worked on Project 28 based on nothing more than a Letter of Intent (LoI) from the ministry. The cost mentioned in that LoI was derived from the cost of the earlier Project 25A, for previous generation Kora class corvettes.

But now, that cost has ballooned, partly because of repeated changes that the Navy has demanded in order to keep Project 28 at the cutting edge of stealth technology. The LoI’s Rs 2,800 crore for the four ships of Project 28 (Rs 700 crore per corvette), has swelled to Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 1,750 crore per corvette). And, since the cost of the first ship of Project 28 was to determine the real cost of Project 28, the defence ministry has little option but to pay that amount.

But Business Standard has learned that the MoD-GRSE negotiations could soon have a happy ending.

Although the order was placed in 2003, the ministry is likely to agree to a “commencement of production” date of March 2006, to compensate for the delays caused by repeated changes in specifications.

Since the first Project 28 corvette is likely to roll out in 2012, that will amount to a notional build period of 6 years, in line with the time that most foreign shipyards take to produce the first ship of a class. Subsequent ships, however, are expected to be churned out much faster.

 

[yashraj]

Great Going.........The Part I like Most is "to provide Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) with the technology to build a major part of the corvettes — the entire superstructure — with lightweight composites."

 

[sudhir007]

Gorshkov price is settled with Russia at $2.3 billion IDRW.ORG

The price of aircraft carrier Gorshkov has been finally settled at US $2.3 billion.

Notwithstanding some bitterness, the Indian side finally agreed to pay this price after being told by the Prime Minister’s Office that the high level of friendship with Russia has to be maintained and an agreement had to be worked out, preferably before Manmohan Singh left for Moscow Dec 6.

That was indeed done on the morning of Dec 4, Navy Day, with a visiting Russian delegation, according to the latest issue of India Strategic defence magazine. Defence ministry officials refused to comment on the development.

The Indian side had asked for some additional onboard equipment at least as part of the increased price, but within that price, which the Russians agreed to. Details of that were still being finalized with the Russians 10 days later in the Indian capital.

The original agreement with the Russians signed in 2004 was for $974 million for the carrier’s refurbishment and upgrade, Gorshkov itself being offered free of cost. The delivery was then set for 2008.

In 2007, Rosoboronexport, the sole Russian agency responsible for selling and exporting weapon systems, indicated a delay in the delivery of the carrier. In 2008, it demanded an additional $1.2 billion in writing saying it had made mistakes in calculations and that it had to many more miles of wiring for instance than it had originally thought.

After that, during the negotiations to settle the dispute arising from this new demand, Rosoboronexport representatives mentioned varying figures asking for still more money, taking the cost of the carrier to $2.9 billion.

Rising prices of oil, which is consumed during the trials, was among the reasons quoted for this second revision of the Gorshkov cost.

The Indian side had agreed to consider the written request for additional $1.2 billion but declined to entertain anything above that.

Well placed sources from Moscow told India Strategic that the Russian government asked Rosoboronexport to come down to $2.4 billion and it also submitted a letter in this regard to the Indian Navy’s negotiating team.

Finally, India agreed to pay a total of $2.3 billion but with a request for some additional equipment, and the Russians agreed to that.

India has also agreed for delivery of the carrier, which the Navy urgently needs, by 2012 without any penalty.

It may be noted that the Russian government paid the Sevmash shipyard, which is doing the repair work on Gorshkov, $250 million as credit to ensure that the work did not stop. India had paid $600 million at the time of the contract, and another $122 million in August this year.

India has already paid more than $600 million for 16 Mig 29K carrier borne aircraft, the first four of which have been delivered at the INS Hansa, the naval base in Goa.

The Indian Navy has asked for 29 more Mig 29Ks, the proposal for which has been cleared by the government. An order is likely to be placed soon.

These deals, although related to the Gorshkov, are separate and the Mig 29K aircraft will operate from both the Gorshkov and India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier now under construction at the Kochi shipyard in southern India.

There has been no official confirmation of the price from either side but Russian sources said that the agreed price was “close to what the Indian Navy wanted”.

The Indian prime minister’s delegation did announce though from Moscow that the agreement over the price had been reached.

“We do not know if the two sides shared some vodka over the deal, but there is goodwill between the negotiators on both the sides following the conclusion of the price,” said an informed source.

 

[sudhir007]

Boeing sources wares from Indian firms for maritime aircraft IDRW.ORG

Boeing has tied up with four Indian firms to source electronic equipment to meet a part of the offsets obligations as part of its sale of eight P8-I multi-mission maritime aircraft (MMA) to the Indian Navy.

Boeing is on schedule to meet its deadline for supplying the aircraft to India by 2013, Vivek Lall, vice president and country head for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), was quoted as telling India Strategic defence magazine.

The company will meet its commitments in terms of timeline and offsets obligations, he added.

Boeing had recently signed agreements with three Indian public sector companies and one private sector firm to source some avionics and electronic equipment, but Lall gave no specific details.

“Boeing has released purchase contracts to the Electronics Corp of India Ltd (ECIL), HAL Avionics Division, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Avantel Softech Ltd,” he said.

Equipment and software from the Indian suppliers will be taken to Seattle, where the world’s largest factory makes Boeing’s commercial airplanes, for integration with the systems supplied by US companies.

The $2.1-billion deal, signed after a global tender, entails a 30-per cent offsets commitment for Boeing, envisaging much more worth of investments back into India and some transfer of technology.

Boeing, however, is supplying only aircraft built on a modern Boeing 737-800 platform, and Harpoon Block II anti-ship/submarine missiles. The onboard combat systems supplied by other companies are part of the deal but being acquired through the US government under its foreign military sales programme.

The P8-I deal is a package of the Boeing 737-800 hybrid aircraft, Raytheon’s advanced AN/APY-10 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for tracking ships, submarines and small coastal vessels even on high speed.

Also included is Northrop Grumman’s electronic warfare self-protection suite, BAE Systems‘ countermeasures dispenser system, Smith Aerospace’s flight and stores (or weapons) management system, and GE-SAFRAN’s powerful CFM 56-7 engines.

Besides the crew, the aircraft can have up to seven operator consoles to tackle various threats.

Official sources indicated that the initial payment in accordance with the contract towards its implementation had been made by the Indian defence ministry.

India will be the first country to get this sophisticated technology, and nearly around the same time when the US Navy, which has paid for its development, gets it. The aircraft is under test now.

Though the onboard technologies are the most sophisticated developed so far, there is scope for future technology insertions due to the aircraft’s open architecture, said Lall, a distinguished Indian origin aerospace expert settled in the US.

 

[sudhir007]

Submarines: Powering Up Arihant

December 7, 2009: Six months ago, with great fanfare, India launched its first nuclear submarine, the INS Arihant (Destroyer of Enemies). This came after over a decade of planning and construction. India has since revealed that the nuclear power plant for Arihant is not yet operational, and it may take up to a year to get that taken care of. Then will come a year of sea trials, followed by the commissioning of Arihant into service. Even then, Arihant will not be a regular member of the fleet, but a "technology demonstrator" ship. That's why Arihant has only four silos for SLBMs (sea launched ballistic missiles). Arihant will be used to develop and test firing SLBMs while submerged. India's existing SLBM, Sagarika, has been test fired by silos fitted to pontoons, but appears too large to fit into the Arihant silos.

The Arihant is based on the Russian Charlie II sub, which it resembles. Russia retired all its Charlie class subs in the early 1990s. India leased one from 1988-91, and gained a great deal of familiarity with it. The Charlie class had eight launch tubes, outside the pressure hull, for anti-ship cruise missiles. The Arihant has four vertical missile silos. The exact purpose of vertical launch tubes on the Arihant is unclear. The navy revealed very little detail on the new sub (which, until two years ago, the government refused to say anything about.) Access by photographers was restricted. It's possible that a Sagarika II, which may already be in development, is designed to fit the Arihant silos.

The new Indian SSN was long referred to as the ATV (Advanced Technology Vessel) class. The ATV project was kept secret. One reason for the secrecy was that so much of the ATV project involved developing a compact, light water reactor technology that would fit in a submarine. This 83 MW reactor makes the Arihant underpowered by the standards of other SSNs, and the Indians give the Arihant's top speed as 55 kilometers an hour.

Once the Arihant class design is proven, a slightly larger version will be built as a class of three SSBN (ballistic missile carrying sub). This was how everyone else did it, including the Chinese and Americans. Get an SSN operational, then modify the design to include some SLBM launch tubes. India also plans to build six SSNs based on the Arihant. All ten subs are part of a program that will eventually cost over $10 billion.

Early next year, India will take possession of a leased (for ten years) Russian Akula II nuclear sub. The Akula II is normally armed with cruise missiles, in its four larger (530mm) torpedo tubes. Since these have a range of 3,000 kilometers, they cannot be sold to India because of the Missile Technology Control Regim treaty Russia signed. Instead, the Indians will use the shorter (300 kilometers) range Klub missile. The Akula II also has four normal sized torpedo tubes. The Akula II boat will mainly serve to train Indian sailors who will operate the three SSBNs (nuclear powered subs carrying SLBMs) and six SSNs (torpedo armed attack boats.)

 

[sudhir007]

Scorpene tangled in govt web

Scorpene tangled in govt web

An air of resignation hangs over the East Yard, a giant workshop shed in Mumbai’s Mazagaon Dock Limited (MDL), where six Scorpene submarines are to be fabricated for the Indian Navy. Two years ago, when Business Standard visited this facility, it hummed with activity as welders assembled the hull of the first Scorpene, which was to join the Indian Navy in 2012.

Since then, rumours of delay, by as much as two years, have swirled around Project 75, under which the Scorpenes have been acquired. Business Standard has learnt that work on the first Scorpene has ground to a halt, and it is unlikely to be ready before 2015.

Most disquietingly, the delay is due to a contracting blunder, stemming from the Ministry of Defence’s propagation of a myth that significant parts of the submarine were being built with Indian components.

This led the defence ministry to create a special category called Mazagaon Procured Materials, or MPM. Of the total project cost of Rs 18,798 crore, Rs 2,700 crore (¤400 million) were set aside for MDL to contract directly for submarine materials. But the impression created, by giving MDL a budget for locally procuring materials and systems from multiple vendors, was false. The bulk of MPM budget, as the defence ministry knew, would go straight to a single vendor — French company Armaris, with whom India signed the Scorpene contract. This would pay for critical submarine systems, including the engine, the generators and special submarine steels.

There was no question of competitive bidding for these items.

Since they affected crucial aspects of Scorpene’s performance, such as noise levels, they had to be bought from the original vendor, Armaris, for performance guarantees to be valid.

It is not clear why the defence ministry left these crucial Scorpene systems unpriced. What is clear is that French company DCNS, which took over Armaris in 2007, is now demanding close to Rs 4,700 crore (¤700 million) for these items, almost twice of what was budgeted.

Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju told Business Standard that DCNS based its higher demand on cost inflation since the contract was signed in October 2005. The MoD asked the French government to intercede with DCNS, but Paris is unwilling to help.

“We expect the French government to play a role to ensure it (the MPM items) is not priced abnormally high. We understand their need to make profit, but the price should not be abnormally high. We feel the French government is shirking its responsibility,” said Raju.

The MoD pleaded its case with a number of French officials, but in vain. “I visited Paris (in June 09) and I had a meeting with DCNS. They assured us they would hold our hand, but we are not getting that comfort level. I projected [the case] to the French defence minister as well. [In November] We had a senior French MoD bureaucrat… come [to Delhi] and I reflected it to him as well,” said Raju.

The MoD blamed DCNS’ takeover of Armaris for further complicating the negotiations. But that does not answer why a contract that took nine years to finalise failed to fix the price for materials worth Rs 2,700 crore.

Senior naval officers familiar with the negotiations said, “The inclusion of so many crucial systems in the MPM package — systems that everyone knew had to be bought from Armaris/DCNS — was a grave contracting mistake. This was done to give the impression of greater indigenisation… since these would apparently be items that MDL was procuring. But this scheme has backfired badly.”

Naval planners are struggling to deal with a situation where the induction of Scorpene submarines remains a long way off. Only after the MoD and DCNS agree on a price that production would begin in France of the engines, generators and other systems that are included in MPM category. Technicians working on Project 75 estimate that, once a price is fixed and a contract signed, it will be 33-36 months before the items are delivered to MDL and fitted on the first Scorpene. Thereafter, the painstaking process of outfitting the rest of the vessel, fitting weapons and sensors and carrying out lengthy trials would begin before handing over the submarine to the Navy.

But work at East Yard has not entirely stopped. Having completed the first hull, MDL is going ahead with fabricating the second and the third. Officials involved in Project 75 say this will allow submarines to be delivered at nine-month intervals, rather than the planned 12 months.

Until MPM contract is signed, and the systems delivered, MDL’s East Yard will not be producing submarines, but 200-foot metal tubes for a project that began two decades ago, and gradually became a symbol of ineffective defence planning.

 

[sudhir007]

Sea power has its significance

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Opinions

One does not have to be an Admiral Gorshkov (the longest serving Soviet naval chief) or Alfred Thayer Mahan (the guru of the maritime doctrine) or a Sir Julian Corbett, the Royal Navy Admiral, to state the obvious. That a navy is not built in a day and no nation can aspire to be a naval power by being at the eternal mercy of foreign suppliers and manufacturers, which can arm twist the ship users’ lack of knowledge and technology at will by taking advantage of its expertise and experience in ship building thereby resulting in the importer’s weakness and helplessness. In fact, naval history of the world is replete with instances of nations which prospered and developed during last 500 years inevitably had the advantage to traverse the entire two-thirds of the global lake in ships built in their own shipyards.

Traditionally, there have never been very many fighting ship-builders either in the 20th or the 21st century. Thus, during World War II Japan was virtually the sole Asian naval power by virtue of its ship building capacity and capability, restrictions imposed by the Washington naval disarmament conference of 1922 notwithstanding. In the west of Suez, Anglo-American supremacy was over, and superiority to the perceived “land-powers” like Germany and its European allies could never match the marine powers’ strength, stamina, endurance and industrial productivity. Hence the war ended in victory for the superior, combined naval strength of the West and defeat for the sole maritime Japanese foe.

Post-World War II, however, the rise of the Soviet Navy was the sole non-Western, non-capitalist state to pose a threat to the virtual monopoly of the Anglo-Saxon naval axis. And it happened, thanks to the Soviet Deputy Minister of Defence-cum-Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy, Admiral Sergei Georgiyevich Gorshkov, who initiated an unprecedented construction plan and timely execution of all ships required by the state. The Soviets challenged the West in the sea because the Soviets made the ships in their own shipyard. Hence they did not have to bank on the charity and worry about the whims of foreigners resulting in time and cost overrun.

In the post-Soviet era, it is the turn of China to pick up the thread which already has built a formidable navy with an apparent single-point agenda of an indigenous ship construction programme. True, the Chinese Navy still has a few ex-Soviet/Russian inventories in its fleet, but the variety and range of Beijing’s vessels today is simply awesome. And there lies the strength of its fleet. Thus China today, according to Jane’s Fighting Ships, 2009-2010, has a total of 54 submarines (of various class), 27 destroyers, 49 frigates and 275 fast attack and patrol craft. Of these, only 16 ships are of non-Chinese (i.e. Russian) make; 12 kilo class submarines and 4 Sovremeny destroyers.

Little wonder, the Chinese feel much more free and confident to flex their muscles and show their ships in out-of-area operations. Jane’s refers to Chinese enterprise thus, “Future historians may come to regard 2009 as the year that the Chinese Navy finally came of age.”

In the midst of the Soviet challenge to the West till the 1990s and the Chinese Navy’s “coming of age in 2009”, where does the Indian fleet stand today? How strong and self-sufficient is the navy of New Delhi? To this writer, the scenario appears to be a mixed bag of success and shortfall. The positive sides of India’s defence is the technical competency and mastery over the English language, expertise in aircraft carrier operations and combat capability in both surface and sub-surface warfare.

However, the not-so-positive factor lies in Indian inability (should one say traditional inertia!) to be self-sufficient in ship building expertise for long. The deficiency on this front is so conspicuous that one still finds all 16 submarines of the Indian Navy to be of foreign make (10 Russian ‘Kilo’,‘2Foxtrot’ and 4 German HDW class). Its sole aircraft carrier Viraat (ex-Hermes) is of British origin, 5 Rajput (Kashin class) destroyers are made in Nikolayev North shipyard (Russia), the 3 Talwar class frigates also are of Moscow origin (with three more likely to follow suit). At least five out of 12 Veer (Tarantul class) corvettes are of Russian make and so are the 4 Abhay class anti-submarine warfare patrol boats.

On the positive side, however, the Indians have made tremendous improvement in ship design, construction time reduction and planned delivery thereof. The pride of Indian ship building has been reflected in the Delhi and Kolkata class destroyers, Shivalik, Brahmaputra and Nilgiri class frigates; Kora, Khukri, Veer, Abhay and project 28 corvettes and the top of the line project of indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant which has been going on at Kochi shipyard.

Despite the mixed bag of success and shortcoming, a horrible mess appears to have been created by the failure of the Russians to stick to the delivery time schedule of the proposed refurbished and refitted Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier to India. This inordinate delay only results in an avoidable spiralling cost, which in turn affects a balanced fleet development. Indeed, one suspects that perhaps the Russians are no longer capable of producing the same quality vessels for which they made a name for themselves during the Soviet era. The period after the demise of the Soviet Union could have resulted in an acute shortage of naval technical experts thereby creating an all-round vacuum in ship-building capability of Russian shipyards.

Else, how does one justify the report that “the French government has given the go-ahead to the possible sale of a helicopter-and-troop carrying ship to Russia”? Is Russia now incapable of building even its own 15000-18000 tonne helicopter-and-troop-carrying carrier? If so, then how would the Russians be able to re-manufacture a sophisticated 45000 tonne aircraft carrier for India? Indeed, the scenario appears rather intriguing. Gorshkov has been badly delayed already. Diplomatic talks have been upgraded from the Joint Secretary to the head of government level. In between, the Captains, Admirals and Defence Ministers are failing to achieve any breakthrough. And yet the “price rise” haggling is going on.

Amidst all this, the Russians are reportedly negotiating with French civil shipbuilders STX and combat ship company DCNS for potential purchase of a Mistral class warship. Although referred to as the amphibious assault ship by Jane’s Fighting Ships 2009-2010, this 21600 tonne vessel has a range of 11000 nautical miles at 15 knots an hour and is capable of up to 16 attack helicopters in its deck thereby giving it enough teeth for offensive operations. If indeed Russia manages to clinch the deal for this ship (two of which are in the French fleet), then its navy would be able to play a role of “forward pressure, force projection, logistic support for the deployed force (ashore or at sea) . . . and command ship for combined operations.”

All indications suggest that the Russian Navy is keen on an early acquisition for a force multiplier mission in the ocean. As an Indian, one certainly cannot possibly have any grudge if a long-standing friend like Moscow acquires a floating airstrip from Europe. But why does Moscow not look into the need of its friendly South Asian navy with the same sense of urgency and sensitivity? Is the “price rise” really that grave as to delay the delivery of India’s maritime defence? One wonders!n

The writer is an alumnus of the National Defence College of India and a Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London.

 

[Ping]

i'm so very glad that gorshkov deal has been settled. i hope such a fiasco doesn't happen in the future. both india and russia will have to make sure gorshkov sort of situation doesn't occur again.

 

[RPK]

India, Oman Navies To Conduct Joint Exercise | India Defence Online

Navies of India and Oman will conduct joint exercise code named Naseem Al Bahar off Oman from December 11 –16. This will be the seventh Indo-Oman bilateral Naval exercise.

Two Indian warships, guided missile frigate Ganga and stealth frigate Talwar will participate in the bilateral exercise. The Royal Navy of Oman task force would comprise the corvette Qahir Al Amwaaj with a helicopter, the missile boat Al Batnah, coastal resupply vessel Al Maded and landing ship Temsah. Several aircraft from Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) will also take part in the exercise, including maritime patrol aircraft and Jaguars.

A press release issued by the Indian Defence Ministry on Dec. 8 said, ‘The Naseem Al Bahr series of bilateral Naval exercises is a significant facet of the growing co-operation between India and Oman. This series of exercises between the Navies of the two nations commenced in 1993 and has grown in scope and complexity over the years. Six exercises conducted thus far have met the underlying aims of facilitating mutual learning and cross pollination of best practices.’ A wide range of exercises would be conducted during the sea exercise phase.
Based on a comprehensive defence MoU signed by the defence ministers of the two nations in Dec 2005, India and Oman both desire to strengthen their Naval co-operation which has already proven to be robust and not restricted to the Naseem Al Bahr series alone, added the press release.

 

[Hulk]

Scorpene tangled in govt web

Scorpene tangled in govt web

An air of resignation hangs over the East Yard, a giant workshop shed in Mumbai’s Mazagaon Dock Limited (MDL), where six Scorpene submarines are to be fabricated for the Indian Navy. Two years ago, when Business Standard visited this facility, it hummed with activity as welders assembled the hull of the first Scorpene, which was to join the Indian Navy in 2012.

Since then, rumours of delay, by as much as two years, have swirled around Project 75, under which the Scorpenes have been acquired. Business Standard has learnt that work on the first Scorpene has ground to a halt, and it is unlikely to be ready before 2015.

Most disquietingly, the delay is due to a contracting blunder, stemming from the Ministry of Defence’s propagation of a myth that significant parts of the submarine were being built with Indian components.

This led the defence ministry to create a special category called Mazagaon Procured Materials, or MPM. Of the total project cost of Rs 18,798 crore, Rs 2,700 crore (¤400 million) were set aside for MDL to contract directly for submarine materials. But the impression created, by giving MDL a budget for locally procuring materials and systems from multiple vendors, was false. The bulk of MPM budget, as the defence ministry knew, would go straight to a single vendor — French company Armaris, with whom India signed the Scorpene contract. This would pay for critical submarine systems, including the engine, the generators and special submarine steels.

There was no question of competitive bidding for these items.

Since they affected crucial aspects of Scorpene’s performance, such as noise levels, they had to be bought from the original vendor, Armaris, for performance guarantees to be valid.

It is not clear why the defence ministry left these crucial Scorpene systems unpriced. What is clear is that French company DCNS, which took over Armaris in 2007, is now demanding close to Rs 4,700 crore (¤700 million) for these items, almost twice of what was budgeted.

Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju told Business Standard that DCNS based its higher demand on cost inflation since the contract was signed in October 2005. The MoD asked the French government to intercede with DCNS, but Paris is unwilling to help.

“We expect the French government to play a role to ensure it (the MPM items) is not priced abnormally high. We understand their need to make profit, but the price should not be abnormally high. We feel the French government is shirking its responsibility,” said Raju.

The MoD pleaded its case with a number of French officials, but in vain. “I visited Paris (in June 09) and I had a meeting with DCNS. They assured us they would hold our hand, but we are not getting that comfort level. I projected [the case] to the French defence minister as well. [In November] We had a senior French MoD bureaucrat… come [to Delhi] and I reflected it to him as well,” said Raju.

The MoD blamed DCNS’ takeover of Armaris for further complicating the negotiations. But that does not answer why a contract that took nine years to finalise failed to fix the price for materials worth Rs 2,700 crore.

Senior naval officers familiar with the negotiations said, “The inclusion of so many crucial systems in the MPM package — systems that everyone knew had to be bought from Armaris/DCNS — was a grave contracting mistake. This was done to give the impression of greater indigenisation… since these would apparently be items that MDL was procuring. But this scheme has backfired badly.”

Naval planners are struggling to deal with a situation where the induction of Scorpene submarines remains a long way off. Only after the MoD and DCNS agree on a price that production would begin in France of the engines, generators and other systems that are included in MPM category. Technicians working on Project 75 estimate that, once a price is fixed and a contract signed, it will be 33-36 months before the items are delivered to MDL and fitted on the first Scorpene. Thereafter, the painstaking process of outfitting the rest of the vessel, fitting weapons and sensors and carrying out lengthy trials would begin before handing over the submarine to the Navy.

But work at East Yard has not entirely stopped. Having completed the first hull, MDL is going ahead with fabricating the second and the third. Officials involved in Project 75 say this will allow submarines to be delivered at nine-month intervals, rather than the planned 12 months.

Until MPM contract is signed, and the systems delivered, MDL’s East Yard will not be producing submarines, but 200-foot metal tubes for a project that began two decades ago, and gradually became a symbol of ineffective defence planning.

These Babu's are of little use, they might have done it deliberately to create kickback opportunities.

 

[sudhir007]

President Patil to board INS Viraat today: Rediff.com India News

ndia's [ Images ] only aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, will have a special guest on Wednesday -- President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

Patil, the supreme commander of the country's armed forces, will get on board the ship at around 11 am on Wednesday, a spokesman of the Indian Navy said in Mumbai [ Images ].

The President is expected to witness Sukhoi Su-30 and Sea Harrier fighter jets take off from the ship during her three hour stay.

The 28,000-tonne INS Viraat, the Centaur class aircraft carrier, was originally commissioned in the British Royal Navy as HMS Hermes Nov 18, 1959. The Indian Navy acquired it in 1987.

The President also scheduled to attend a Fleet Review early next year.

 

[sudhir007]

The Hindu : News / National : Navy for second line of submarines construction

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in its latest report to Parliament last week mentioned that the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had during March 2003 directed that the Navy should not let the force level fall below 140 ships as against the existing force level of 130 ships

Close on the heels of the Parliamentary Standing Committee that took serious note of the shortage of ships and submarines, the Indian Navy on Tuesday pushed the envelope asking the government to identify shipyards to begin construction of the second line of submarines as per plans.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in its latest report to Parliament last week mentioned that the Defence Acquisition Council(DAC) had during March 2003 directed that the Navy should not let the force level fall below 140 ships as against the existing force level of 130 ships .

“The Committee take note of the shortage of the ships and submarines seriously and would like to recommend that all efforts should be made to expedite the acquisition/ Construction of the ships/submarines so that at least the existing fleet of ships/ Submarines do not fall below the minimum required level,” the Committee report said.

At the latest meeting of the DAC here, the Navy said it is time to start identifying shipyards where six submarines of the French-Scorpene series could be taken up.

Sources in the Ministry said the Navy’s push also comes as its submarine force level is depleting and as per current estimates it is expected to drop to 60 per cent of the current level of 16 odd submarines over the next five-six years and touch 50 per cent by 2020.

Behind schedule

At present six Scorpene submarines are being built at the Mazagoan Dock and the project is running behind schedule. The first submarines are likely to be inducted only by 2012 with the entire first phase due to be completed by 2017.

As per Indian Navy Staff Qualitative Requirements plan approved a decade ago, 24 submarines were to be constructed in series. The project-75 envisaged six of these to be constructed in the first phase (2000-2012) and the balance in the second phase (2013-2030).

Now, the Navy wants the government to identify the shipyards so that the second batch of 6 under project-75 India is undertaken and the rest 12 being wholly indigenous.

A recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General too had noted that delay in finalisation of acquisition of submarines coupled with the time lag in the induction of the first submarine in 2012, the inventory of the operational submarines available for the Navy would be “at its lowest ebb and this would lead to serious operational ramifications.”

 

[sudhir007]

Indian ship dodges attack by ‘pirates’ IDRW.ORG

An Indian oil tanker, M T Maharaja Agrasen, dodged a suspected pirate attack in the Arabian Sea late Monday night. After a dramatic

chase, which saw the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard swinging into action, the tanker managed to escape. It is now sailing safely to Vishakapatnam.

Officials in the directorate-general of shipping (DGS) said the tanker with 41 Indian crew was on a loaded passage with 1.34 lakh metric tonnes of crude oil from Min Al Ahmadi in Kuwait to Visakhapatnam and sent out a security alert close to midnight on Tuesday.

“The owners contacted the directorate and informed us that the vessel was under attack by eight unlit boats about 366 nautical miles (about 695 kms) west of Ratnagiri,” said a DGS official.

 

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The Hindu : News / National : Navy for second line of submarines construction

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in its latest report to Parliament last week mentioned that the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had during March 2003 directed that the Navy should not let the force level fall below 140 ships as against the existing force level of 130 ships

Close on the heels of the Parliamentary Standing Committee that took serious note of the shortage of ships and submarines, the Indian Navy on Tuesday pushed the envelope asking the government to identify shipyards to begin construction of the second line of submarines as per plans.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in its latest report to Parliament last week mentioned that the Defence Acquisition Council(DAC) had during March 2003 directed that the Navy should not let the force level fall below 140 ships as against the existing force level of 130 ships .

“The Committee take note of the shortage of the ships and submarines seriously and would like to recommend that all efforts should be made to expedite the acquisition/ Construction of the ships/submarines so that at least the existing fleet of ships/ Submarines do not fall below the minimum required level,” the Committee report said.

At the latest meeting of the DAC here, the Navy said it is time to start identifying shipyards where six submarines of the French-Scorpene series could be taken up.

Sources in the Ministry said the Navy’s push also comes as its submarine force level is depleting and as per current estimates it is expected to drop to 60 per cent of the current level of 16 odd submarines over the next five-six years and touch 50 per cent by 2020.

Behind schedule

At present six Scorpene submarines are being built at the Mazagoan Dock and the project is running behind schedule. The first submarines are likely to be inducted only by 2012 with the entire first phase due to be completed by 2017.

As per Indian Navy Staff Qualitative Requirements plan approved a decade ago, 24 submarines were to be constructed in series. The project-75 envisaged six of these to be constructed in the first phase (2000-2012) and the balance in the second phase (2013-2030).

Now, the Navy wants the government to identify the shipyards so that the second batch of 6 under project-75 India is undertaken and the rest 12 being wholly indigenous.

A recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General too had noted that delay in finalisation of acquisition of submarines coupled with the time lag in the induction of the first submarine in 2012, the inventory of the operational submarines available for the Navy would be “at its lowest ebb and this would lead to serious operational ramifications.”

 

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Saab offers Sea Gripen for indian navy

DEFENSE STUDIES: Saab offers Sea Gripen