Indian Navy needs a variety & quantity upgrade in submarines

By: Kartikeya Semwal

Conventional submarine 

Indian Navy is the world’s 7th largest navy in the world with 294 warships. While our biggest enemy China is ranked 2nd largest with 730 warships of different types. This is a cause of concern as we aren’t even half of our enemy. In the last 1 decade, under Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji & Raksha mantri Shri Rajnath Singh ji, our navy has added many warships to its fleet, yet a lot more needs to be done.

China has a large number of different types of submarines ranging from conventional to nuclear. The advantage that they have is that they are building their own submarines & that too, at a fast pace. Contrast to that India doesn’t makes its own conventional submarines. And there is a huge gap in this category. China has 48 conventional submarines which means that it can deploy as many of them to watch or surround Indian Ocean region (IOR) while India has only 16 conventional submarines. Those too are the old Russian Kilo class submarines that are nearing their retirement time. 

SSGN 

This is the time when Indian Navy should focus on acquiring conventional submarines in good numbers. It should have atleast 24-30 conventional submarines equipped with AIP (air independent propulsion) system that will increase their endurance time considerably.

Recently the MOD (Ministry of Defense) has issued a request of proposal (RFP) to its shortlisted strategic partners namely Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. & Larson & Tubro (L&T) to start building 6 conventional submarines which will cost 40,000 crore. Foreign partners in form of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers will be needed for this. This looks good for now but the number is not enough. Let’s hope that Indian Navy will ask for another 12-16 conventional submarines from the govt. of India to improve its counter ability against China’s PLA Navy. 

SSGN firing cruise missile

Besides conventional submarines, Indian Navy also needs atleast 6 SSGN submarines. For those who don’t know about SSGN, these are guided cruise missile firing submarines that can launch both- land attack & anti-ship missiles along with firing torpedoes. One big ability of these submarines is that they can engage multiple enemies at a same time. Two big advantages an SSGN offers is that it is nuclear powered & is faster than SSBN (nuclear ballistic missile submarines) & are also smaller than SSBNs. Acquiring 6 of these will greatly help the Indian Navy in countering the growing Chinese PLA Navy’s threat in the Indian Ocean. Let’s hope that Indian Navy puts its demand to the Govt. of India after lok sabha polls & the new govt. acts swiftly in fulfilling their requirement. 




 

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