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The Indian Navy (IN) successfully absorbed the
Chakra’s nuclear propulsion technology while
it was based at Vishakapatnam. The submarine was
seen exercising with a few selected fleet units
of the Navy in Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) maneuvers.
Since then however, the Navy has witnessed a
steady decline and its ORBAT of submarines is
down to 14 boats, some of them on the verge of
retirement.
India’s Scorpene project is delayed, but
the requirement of an additional six boats at
least in a second line of construction is inviting
keen competition from several countries, including
Russia, Germany and France.
The existing boats include four Dr Gabler 1500
HDW/IKL designed submarines inducted between 1986
and 1994, and 10 Kilo class double decked boats
from Moscow, supplied between 1986 and 2000. The
Indian Navy has acquired just two submarines since
1990 in the last 21 years. Of the ten Kilos, the
last, INS Sindhushastra (S 65), was commissioned
in June 2000, as the fully converted submarine
capable of firing Uran missiles.
Four more were later converted in Russia during
long refits and, at present, the older six Kilos
are 22 years old and ageing. The 20- year old
INS Sindhukriti (S-61), the first submarine to
be attempted to be refitted in India for conversion
to fire Uran missiles with Russian help, has been
languishing in refit at Vishakapatnam for the
last three years.
To augment the Navy’s submarine strategic
capability, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) took
over the loss making Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL)
from the Ministry of Shipping at Vishakapatnam,
as it was right next to the Ship Building Centre
(SBC) where India’s nuclear submarines are
being built. HSL was given the contract to refit
INS Sindhukriti.
The inability to carry out refits of the Kilo
class submarines in India is another debilitating
factor leading to a degraded operational capability.
Submarines require very robust checks for safety
of their hulls, that have to withstand deep depths
and no system like pumps and machinery can afford
to fail, as it can be fatal.
The life span of Russian platforms has posed
many challenges. There are problems in the supply
of spares and documentation despite the setting
up of Roboronservice Ltd in India by a group of
Russian companies to provide better support to
the Indian Navy. The L One (L1) syndrome of lowest
cost tender acceptance system of procurement leaves
little flexibility.
Some times, the L1 issue has become a challenge
for logistic and acquisition managers in India’s
Armed Forces.
DECLINING SUBMARINE STRENGTH
The number of conventional submarines in the
Indian Naval fleet to ensure adequate availability
in numbers for operations, training, exercises
and contingencies is likely to keep declining
from the present 14, till the first Scorpene submarine
rolls out of Mazagon Docks Ltd (MDL) in about
four to five years.
The vexed Scorpene building programme has also
seen an escalation of around $ 1.5 billion over
the initial price tag of $ 3.8 billion, and in
the words of Defence Minister AK Antony, for reasons
that ‘MDL could not procure items as per
the contract from India’.
MDL has had to import engines and other equipment
at higher prices than quoted in the negotiations,
as the contract was hurriedly signed. The situation
also worsened when there was a war room leak of
information from NHQ’s nerve centre, implicating
retired naval officers and son of a member of
Parliament.
LOOKING BACK
Historically, it was in 1997 that the Indian
Ministry of Defence (MOD) had taken up the ‘two
line 30 year national submarine building programme’
for the Indian Navy to boost itss submarine strength
as well as India’s indigenous manufacturing
sector.
India did build Leander class frigates successfully
at the Mazagon Docks.
Former Naval Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, a
proponent of submarine power for the Navy, and
Rear Admiral Raja Menon, a former submarine captain
who had trained in Germany at the HDW yard, scripted
the Indian navy’s long term vision.
Adm Bhagwat also pushed for the Dhanush nuclear
capable missile, to be fitted on the OPV INS Subhadra
and Sukanya in the interim for nuclear deterrence,
despite detractors. It is not much known, that
the in the 1960s, as a young Lieutenant, Bhagwat
had volunteered for the Navy’s budding elite
submarine arm but did not fully qualify, as the
competition was severe.
In the coming years though, he enrolled his
son in to the Indian Navy, who is now a senior
Commander and a qualified nuclear submariner.
Adm Bhagwat could not follow up on his aggressive
thrust to make the Ministry of Defence give accent
to maritime issues, especially submarines and
an indigenous aircraft carrier in his time. His
tenure was also cut short by a ministerial order.
It was a jolt to the Armed Forces, and the Navy’s
submarine plans suffered. It is well said, new
brooms take time to settle and sweep differently.
Only in 1999, the Cabinet Committee on Security
(CCS) formally approved and recommended the long
term plan for the local construction of 24 submarines
over 30 years in two lines.
The decision for the first line of submarine
building programme languished for seven years.
The vested interests of the three contenders were
not easy to resolve. These included Armaris (now
defunct), the French and Spanish combine DCNS
which finally secured the $ 3.8 billion contract
for six submarines, German HDW which had supplied
two 1500 IKL/HDW boats from Germany and helped
build two at MDL, and Rubin/Amur of Russia, which
had also offered to build submarines.
India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T),
which has engaged in building India’s ATV
nuclear submarine INS Arihant with Russian help,
is confident that it can also deliver new submarines
in cooperation with foreign shipyards.
South Korea, which had locally manufactured
the 212 HDW submarines under license, has also
offered its interest in the project.
Many professionals from 1998 onwards had suggested
that one or two submarines should be urgently
built abroad and inducted to adapt to the technology
first, as was done from HDW in the 1980s, but
it was not to be.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
The saving grace is that the IN has plans to
induct two nuclear propelled submarines soon;
the home built INS Arihant which will be armed
with the DRDO’s 700km K-15/Sagarika missiles
by the end of next year, and Nerpa from Russia.
The initial snags reported in the Arihant’s
nuclear reactor operation have been overcome and
the arduous harbour trials are reported to be
going well at Vishakapatnam.
It will be a proud day for Indians, when the
submarine’s reactor is made critical and
Arihant sails out on nuclear power. The other
submarine, the 8,500 ton Akula class Nerpa, being
christened INS Chakra, is expected to arrive on
lease later this year.
Unconfirmed reports say that the Indian crew
for it is already being trained in Vladivostok.
In India, these officers and men would have had
extensive training in nuclear reactor operations
already at one of India’s power reactors.
When commissioned, the two nuclear boats will
be a formidable addition to the Indian Navy’s
declining strength. The base and safety facilities
are being setup under the care of Vice Admiral
P K Chatterjee, a submariner at NHQ who heads
the Nuclear Safety Division.
For underwater communications, an agreement
has been reported to have been signed with a private
company to build tall transmitter towers for Very
Low Frequency (VLF) Radio Waves to transmit messages
to submerged submarines at 300 bits/sec.
VLF is a communication system that allows submerged
submarines to receive messages without having
to break the surface or through towed and tethered
buoys or their periscope masts. This is an advancement
on the earlier VLF station which was set up under
the Navy’s Project Skylark in Tirunaveli
in South India with US help, akin to the Omega
system which was proposed for Australia in 1972.
THE SECOND LINE
The progress for the approved second line of
building submarines, pending since 1999, appears
to be moving swiftly now.
In mid-July 2010, the Indian media stated that
the programme for the next line six submarines
was to be funded at about US $ 8 to 10 billion
inclusive of technology transfers and offsets.
The Navy had released the relevant RFI on 26 September
2008.
The replies continue to be reviewed by the Indian
Navy and the Acquisition Wing of MOD, and most
foreign builders have been called for consultations,
so that a comprehensive RFP can be issued.
The plans call for import of two, and the construction
of four in India, under what is called Project
75-I. An RfP is awaited, and may be issued within
this year. In financial terms, this acquisition
could nearly be as big as the Indian Air Force’s
tender for 126-plus order for Medium Multi Role
Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).
The responses to the Navy’s 2008 submarine
RFI include the five designs tabled below, which
in all probability will include options for Air
Independent Propulsion (AIP) systems as no leading
navy can have submarines that surface often to
charge batteries, acting like sitting ducks in
today’s technology of detection.
- DCNS has offered the Super Scorpene design
which is still on paper, with MESMA AIP with
a sales pitch that since DCNS is building the
Scorpenes in India at MDL, the second line will
come out faster and economically. DCNS can also
build simultaneously at another yard like HSL.
(The French also claim the submarine design
can be fitted with a nuclear propulsion package
plug on the lines of the French nuclear submarine
of the Rubis class).
- Navantia is the Spanish submarine builder
who was the partner with DCNS in Armaris for
the current six Indian Scorpenes project progressing
at MDL. Navantia has since broken off from DCNS,
and has offered the Spanish S-80 design almost
with the same argument of alacrity as the French,
with a competitive ethanol based AIP. Navantia
is constructing S-80 submarines for the Spanish
Navy and has a very advanced open architecture
design for fire control suites and also has
a tieup with Lockheed Martin of USA, which should
allow the Indian Navy to independently select
fire control suites, missiles and torpedoes
from either source.
- Rubin has offered the Amur design which has
also been on the cards for long. Many in the
Indian naval community wish to see the Navy
and MOD adopt a Russian design as Russians have
good submarine technology and have proved alternate
reliable strategic partners. The Amur designers
claim they can fit eight vertical BrahMos missile
launchers and Russia holds the BrahMos technology.
- Fincantieri/Rubin has offered the S-1000
design. Fincantieri has emerged as a favoured
reliable, and economical warship supplier that
has delivered fleet tanker INS Deepak, an Oceanographic
research vessel ORV Sagar Nidhi, and is a consultant
to IN for its ambitious 37,500 ton aircraft
carrier project at Cochin Shipyard Ltd.
- ThyssenKrupp Marine has offered the HDW Type
214 with the sales pitch that the 214 is the
only widely proven design in service and that
the Indian Navy operates the earlier adaptation
of the 209 class. HDW claims it can deliver
submarines timely, as in the past.
AIR INDEPENDENT PROPULSION
(AIP)
The Indian Navy is in the search for an AIP
system and contemplating to upgrade one or two
of the 1500 HDW boats with an AIP plug when the
boats come up for refits. Singapore has adopted
the Swedish Sterling engine with climate control
for tropical waters for its Archer class from
Kockums AB, which is now under the German umbrella
of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. The Indian
Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy relations
are very close and Indian officers are seconded
to Singapore, and have exchanged notes.
In the current Scorpene contract, the Indian
Navy has the option to fit the French MESMA ethanol
steam system, which the French firm DCNS has fitted
on the Pakistan Navy’s AgostaB submarines.
Little is known how the MESMA is progressing
in the Pakistan Navy and this writer met the Vice
Chief of the Pakistan Navy in Singapore during
an OPV Conference and he claimed success. The
German HDW submarines employ a fuel cell AIP technology
and the Spanish have an adapted ethanol based
AIP, which they claim is superior to the French.
Russians claim they have an AIP design and it
is reported India’s DRDO has been experimenting
with an AIP also.
CONCLUSION
The Indian Navy has a grave responsibility in
the coming years and if the Indian economy is
to continue to grow at a steady rate then energy
security, stability in the Indian Ocean, exploitation
of the two million sq miles of Exclusive Economic
Zone (EEZ), and protection of India’s shorelines
against 26/11 type of attacks will need a robust,
large and well equipped, well trained, and well
funded Navy.
The Indian Navy has a crucial role in ensuring
that the trading Sea Lanes and choke points in
the Indian Ocean and the littoral areas are secure
at all times.
To patrol the seas, a large Navy needs a surface
fleet and a sufficient strength of conventional
submarines is a necessity for the Indian Navy
in current scenario in the Indian Ocean.
India’s maritime military strategy is predicated
on preparing for a possible conflict whilst maintaining
a deterrent posture that ensures peace. The Chief
of Naval Staff (CNS) has stated in Indian Navy’s
strategic document India’s Maritime Military
Strategy thus: “The direction appears abundantly
clear – a compact but capable Navy. The emphasis
would be on force multipliers, quality of weapons,
sensors and networking of platforms. In other
words, the focus would be on critical capabilities
than on the number of ships or aircraft.”
So be it, but all new projects, including the
second submarine line, should also help bring
new technologies and economic benefits to Indian
industries.
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