Navy revives post to fast-track submarine acquisition plans - The Times of India
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Navy revives post to fast-track submarine acquisition plans.
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Jul 30, 2011, 01.40am IST TNN
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NEW DELHI: With India grappling with a depleting
underwater combat arm, coupled with both
Pakistan and China fast bolstering their own fleets,
the Navy has appointed a senior officer to
oversee and fast-track all submarine acquisition
plans.
Rear Admiral M T Moraes took over as the new
assistant chief of naval staff (submarines), a post
which has been revived after a long gap, at South
Block here on Friday. He will be replaced by Rear
Admiral Srikant as the "flag officer (submarines)"
at Visakhapatnam.
Down to only 14 diesel-electric submarines, the
Navy is desperate to ensure its mammoth new
programme, "Project-75 India", gets rolling at the
earliest. It envisages acquisition of six new stealth
submarines, equipped with both tube-launched
missiles for land-attack capabilities as well as AIP
(air-independent propulsion) for enhanced
underwater endurance, for over Rs 50,000 crore,
as was first reported by TOI.
What has added to naval woes is that the
ongoing Rs 23,562-crore project (P-75) to build
six French Scorpene submarines at Mazagon
Docks is running three years behind schedule,
with the boats now slated to roll out between
2015 and 2020.
The Navy will be left with only five of its existing
10 Russian Kilo-class and four German HDW
submarines by 2020. Consequently, even with
the six Scorpenes, India will be far short of the at
least 18 conventional submarines required to
deter Pakistan and China.
India is also set to get the Russian Akula-II class
nuclear-powered submarine, K-152 Nerpa, to be
rechristened INS Chakra, on a 10-year lease by
November-December.
But the real underwater punch will come when
indigenous nuclear submarine, the over 6,000-
tonne INS Arihant, becomes operational. Navy
chief Admiral Nirmal Verma had earlier
announced India's nuclear weapon triad will be
completed, with the most effective and difficult-
to-detect underwater leg, when INS Arihant goes
on "deterrent patrols" next year.
As for 'P-75 India', the global tender or RFP
(request for proposal) for it will be floated only
towards end-2011 to vendors like
Rosoboronexport (Russia), DCNS (France), HDW
(Germany) and Navantia (Spain).
As of now, the plan is to directly import two
submarines from the foreign collaborator
eventually selected, with the next three being built
at MDL in Mumbai, and the sixth at Hindustan
Shipyard in Visakhapatnam under transfer of
technology.
