INS Shishumar, one of four Indian Navy submarines purchased from HDW Germany
By Vikas Gupta
Trade standard
Visiting German Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will be in Mumbai on Wednesday as renowned German shipbuilder, Thyssenkruppe Marine Systems (TKMS), signs an agreement with India’s largest shipyard, Mazagon Dock Limited ( MDL), to cooperate in the construction of six advanced submarines for the Indian Navy.
These submarines will be powered by a new technology called Air Independent Propulsion (AIP). They will be built under a Rs 45,000 crore program called Project 75-I.
Project 75-I is being pursued under the so-called “strategic partner” (SP) equipment acquisition model. This requires the Ministry of Defense (MoD) to identify Indian companies that have the capacity and capacity to build and supply a particular weapons platform – such as a submarine, warship, jet hunt or chariot. The necessary advanced technology is obtained through a partnership with a foreign original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
Selected Indian service providers then partner with approved OEMs and submit bids to design and build the platform in India.
It is understood that the MDL-TKMS combine will compete in the 75-I project with another combine in which Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is a partner of the Spanish shipbuilder Navantia.
Meanwhile, Naval Group of France, which is about to complete the construction of India’s six Scorpene submarines under Project 75, has been excluded on the grounds that the AIP it proposes to supply – called MESMA AIP – lacks the capability that the Indian Navy is seeking under Project 75-I.
AIP-equipped submarines enjoy significant operational advantages over older submarines, which run on diesel-electric propulsion. Diesel-electric submarines can operate silently underwater for up to 48 hours, but then must surface to run a generator to recharge their batteries. When they surface, diesel-electric submarines are easily detected by enemy radar, which can easily spot submarine masts or snorkels sticking out of the water.
Submarines equipped with AIP can operate underwater for up to two weeks before surface for battery charging.
The hardest to detect are nuclear-powered submarines, which can stay submerged indefinitely. The Defense R&D Organization of India (DRDO) is pursuing development programs for nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) and nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs).
On Monday, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh met with his German counterpart to explore ways to strengthen the defense industrial partnership between the two countries. The Indian Navy operates four German-made submarines called the Shishumar class and has indicated it is ready to take on more.
“Rajnath Singh underlined that India and Germany could build a more symbiotic relationship based on common goals and complementarity of strengths, namely skilled manpower and India’s competitive costs and technologies. state-of-the-art technology and investment from Germany,” the Indian Defense Ministry said.
India and Germany have had a strategic partnership since 2000, which has been strengthened by intergovernmental consultations since 2011 at the Heads of Government level. This is the first visit by a German defense minister to India since 2015.
