The Indian Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, early this month tweeted, “approved issue of RFP (Request for proposal) for construction of six Conventional Submarines under Project P 75 (I) under the Strategic Partnership (SP) Model.” 

Project-75 I – a project that envisages six conventional submarine construction at an estimated cost of Rs 43,000 crore. “I” stands for India, and this project will be the biggest defence projects approved by the Government to be made under the Make in India banner.

The project is a part of India’s 30-year plan to build 24 conventional submarines, a plan which originated during the Kargil War when the Vajpayee led cabinet decided to increase India’s underwater naval power. The predecessor of Project 75-I, Project 75 Kalvari-class was commissioned in 2017 also had 6 subs to be built, out of which 5 have been built and 3 are active. Both being two separate series of submarine building lines in collaboration with foreign entities.

Project 75-I lies under the Strategic Partnership Model (SPM), which is a method established under India’s 2020 Defence Acquisition Procedure, which aims to encourage the Indian private Defence sector to manufacture four key types of defence equipment: submarines, fighter aircraft, helicopters, and armoured fighting vehicles. The SPM is just another step towards the decade long pursuit of India, towards self-reliance in defence. As the model directs, the contract will be given to a group of Indian builders and a foreign Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). 

The SPM also allows India to break the monopoly of the public firm and allow private players, who can now work with foreign companies which hold expertise in building a defence platform. This will allow indigenous manufacturers to set up manufacturing of the defence platforms here, cutting out the dependency on import. 

What type of submarines?

Although initially, the plan was to get 24 conventional submarines, which means they would be propelled by diesel and electricity. With new technology, there are now supposed to be 8 nuclear submarines of a total of 24. Such vessels are powered by nuclear reactors within the submarine and provide multiple benefits over the traditional submarines running on diesel and electricity. First, unlike conventional subs, they do not need to surface frequently to breathe, and second, the power generated by nuclear reactors gives them the freedom of limitless voyage at high speeds. Conventional submarines, on the other hand, run on batteries that have to be topped up periodically. This means the boat has to become indiscreet by rising to periscope depth, and extend its snort mast above water to ingest air. This snorkelling exposes them to all kinds of threats. Countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and France have moved completely to nuclear submarines, but most other countries have structured their navies to include both. The Nuclear subs, which are generally preferred, come with a hefty price hike over the conventional subs. These also have smaller hulls allowing them to easily manoeuver in shallow waters, and provide good deterrence in their littoral zone.

The need for submarines

India right now has about 15 conventional submarines and one nuclear submarine, out of which 12 are old and need intermediate replacements as they are already obsolete. India also returned a nuclear submarine which was on lease from Russia, INS Chakra, and the last solo nuclear submarine also called the SSBN (Ballistic missile submarine) is an indigenous submarine, INS Arihant.

Another SSBN submarine, INS Arighat is to be commissioned later this year, and the replacement to INS Chakra to arrive on Indian shores by 2025. The Indian Navy also saw a lot of delay with Project 75-I predecessor, Project 75 Kalvari (Scorpene) class submarines, whose last three submarines of the six are yet to be deployed in the next two year, whose initial timeline set its completion by 2017.

Although the approval and building of Project 75-I is a landmark, spectators closely following the development suggest that the submarines are not “just around the corner”. The skepticism is well accounted as for the longest time the project was just on the back burner, without any movement or development until the current Government accepted its importance.

Project 75-I was approved in 2007, and now the Request for proposal (RPF) has been allowed. This means the army will now roll out the RPFs, which only marks the beginning of a long tendering process. The next step being the two government shortlisted companies, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), and Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) to choose their international collaborator, then submitting their final bids to the Defence Ministry, which will then after evaluation, offer it to the lowest bidder.

Yet experts suggest that the process has also been made chaotic with a clear conflict of interests arising between the partners since the new acquisition policy allows both L&T and MDL to submit multiple submissions by partnering with more than one foreign OEM. This might make it harder to navigate and strike deals, delaying the process of even submitting final offers, after which a considerable period of time will be taken to build the submarines.

The Indian submarine plan also faces other delays. The submarines from the last project, Project 75, were supposed to be fitted with new technology, but the slow development of the systems by the DRDO resulted in further delay to the fulfilment of the Indian Naval plans.

Given the delays, the woes of the Indian Navy is only magnified by a menacing Chinese Naval force. China right now has the biggest Navy in the world, with 350 warships, 50 conventional submarines, and 10 nuclear submarines, with a plan to reach a force level of 450 by the end of the decade.

The world has already seen the Chinese aggression in the South China Sea and it seems the Indian Ocean is the next. Indian’s geopolitical relationship with the government in Beijing also seems not to be the best, considering with the Himalayan border dispute. Already Chinese vessels are spotted fairly regularly in the region. Beijing has also struck a deal with Islamabad, helping India’s Western neighbour with eight Yuan-class submarines and four multi-role frigates for seven billion dollars.

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This article is written by Supratik Mitra