In recent years, India has made notable strides in achieving self-reliance in defense capabilities.
This progress includes developments in indigenous aircraft carriers, various missile systems, artillery, and aerospace technologies.
Despite skepticism regarding the advanced nature and indigenous content of these weapons, India has moved beyond its previous reliance on foreign suppliers.
Since 2014, under Prime Minister Modi's vision of "Make in India," the defense industry has been a cornerstone of this initiative.
Modi ambitiously aims to increase India's defense exports to $5 billion by 2025, highlighting the strategic importance placed on indigenous defense production.
Currently, India's major defense equipment exports primarily target countries like Armenia, smaller nations in South Asia compelled to purchase Indian weapons, and several Southeast Asian countries.
With the exception of Armenia, where India exports major equipment under low-interest or interest-free loans, the technical sophistication of India's exports remains relatively modest.
Notable exceptions include the BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missile, jointly developed with Russia.
However, even this achievement relies significantly on Russian technological contributions.
Despite these efforts, India's "Make in India" initiative is still in its early stages.
According to reports from the Indian Times, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, one of India's most advanced shipyards, announced plans to develop a new generation conventional diesel-electric submarine for the Indian Navy.
In contrast to the slow pace of indigenous weapons development, the timeline for this project appears optimistic.
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited plans to design, develop, and produce India's first indigenous conventional diesel-electric submarine within the next three years.
However, it's worth noting that this won't be India's first indigenous submarine.
India's journey into indigenous submarines began with the INS Arihant, launched in July 2009 and commissioned in 2016.
The Arihant, a nuclear-powered submarine, was India's first indigenously designed and manufactured submarine and the first of its kind to be developed by a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
However, its design heavily borrowed from Russian Victor-class and Akula-class submarines.
The INS Arihant, which has now been joined by a second vessel, has a displacement of approximately 6,000 tons and a submerged speed of 24 knots.
Its core power comes from an 83 MW pressurized water reactor developed by India's Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), but the design and development support were still provided by Russia.
As one of the six countries globally possessing nuclear submarines, India's Arihant class submarines are relatively outdated.
While equipped with the K-15 short-range submarine-launched ballistic missile capable of nuclear strikes, its warhead yield and range have left it somewhat of a laughing stock among military analysts.
India has also attempted to develop a medium-range submarine-launched ballistic missile with a range of 3,500 kilometers but has not yet achieved success.
Before developing the Arihant, the Indian Navy had hoped it would match the capabilities of the Soviet-era Akula-class submarines from the 1980s, a dream that has not been fully realized.
However, as India sets its sights on designing the next generation of indigenous conventional submarines, it faces familiar challenges—setting overly ambitious technical specifications.
According to Indian media reports, this new submarine will have a displacement of over 3,000 tons, making it a significant vessel in the conventional submarine category.
It will utilize advanced power systems such as Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) and lithium-ion batteries, and will be required to carry cruise missiles.
Given the hydrographic conditions of the Indian Ocean, this submarine will need high diving depths and low acoustic signatures, with almost all critical components designed and developed by Indian companies to align with Prime Minister Modi's "Make in India" initiative.
In a surprising move, the Indian Navy plans to purchase twelve of these submarines outright, skipping the traditional step of building a prototype and seeing it as the future backbone of the Indian Navy's submarine fleet, surpassing even the capabilities of India's current mainstays—the Russian Kilo-class and German 209-class submarines and aiming to match or exceed the advanced French Scorpene-class (Kalvari-class) submarines.
This ambition brings to mind India's struggles with failed projects like the Tejas (LCA) fighter jet (meant to match the operational capabilities of the F-16) and the Arjun main battle tank (aiming for capabilities akin to the German Leopard 2A4 and Ukrainian T-80 tanks).
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited expresses confidence in this endeavor, collaborating with the Indian Navy's Warship Design Bureau (WDB).
Whether they can meet the ambitious three-year timeline for this project remains to be seen.
If successful, these submarines will be part of India's P-76 submarine project.
The confidence of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited stems from their successful production of the Scorpene-class (Kalvari-class) submarines, which utilize AIP technology licensed from France.
Since their commissioning, these submarines have received acclaim from the Indian Navy and have equipped Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited with the capabilities to produce modern submarines.
However, with the Scorpene-class submarines boasting a maximum displacement of less than 2,000 tons, India's aspiration to become the third country after China and Japan to independently design and build large AIP submarines raises doubts about its capability, despite its confidence as reflected in optimistic Indian media reports declaring the success of this indigenous submarine design, interpreting it as a significant step toward reducing India's critical technological dependence on foreign suppliers.
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