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 According
to Patrick Boissier, Chairman and CEO of DCNS,
which is executing India’s biggest submarine
building programme for six diesel-electric Scorpene
submarines, said that India’s Mazagon Docks
Ltd (MDL) had already “absorbed the demanding
technologies associated with hull fabrication”
and that hulls for the first two submarines had
been completed.
The delivery of the advanced combat systems
for the first submarine would also be complete
soon.
Boissier, who was in New Delhi as part of French
Pressident Nicolas Sarkozy’s delegation,
said that “construction of hulls for the
third and fourth submarines was in progress while
the frame to receive the hull of the fifth submarine
is under manufacture.”
Boissier observed that Asia would see a staggering
growth in the number of submarines in the next
10 years, and various countries in the region
could acquire some 100 submarines. There were
naval defence opportunities both in South-east
Asia and the Arab Gulf region.
DCNS was particularly keen to cooperate with
Indian companies, both public and private sector
towards building indigenous capabilities, and
also to invest in the defence sector in India
for building ships and submarines.
He said that DCNS was looking up to collaborating
with India on the next line of six more submarines,
as also to supply components for nuclear power
plants. France has proposed that its Areva should
build several 1650 MW units. Areva has developed
technology for the biggest and the most advanced
nuclear power plants in the world.
Notably, the Scorpene project has been delayed
but Boissier said that at present, DCNS was “conducting
genuine transfers of technologies and of know-how
at an unprecedented level.”
“We are providing our Indian partners with
technical assistance to manufacture equipments
through indigenisation programmes.”
It may be recalled that India had bought four
HDW submarines from Germany in the 1980s, but
due to controversies and allegations, whatever
little transfer of technology was done was lost,
and all those who trained on the contemporary
systems of the 1980s, have retired or left MDL.
 According
to MDL Chairman and Managing Director Vice Admiral
H S Mahi, the first Scorpene should be launched
by 2014, and the process should be smooth in the
new timeframe.
He also says that MDL could now make submarine
pressure hulls without any foreign collaboration.
Boissier visited MDL and met with Mahi to review
the progress of the Scorpene construction.
It may be noted that MDL is sourcing some important
critical sub-systems from other companies. Nonetheless,
DCNS has offered to modify the Scorpene design
and supply Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) systems
for the last of the two submarines.
The Indian Navy is terribly short of submarine
capability, loaded as it has been with the old
Soviet vintage Foxtrot and Kilo class, and four
German HDWs. A tender for six more P 75-I more
advanced submarines, with AIP capability for longer
underwater stay, is likely to be floated in 2011
for simultaneous construction at two or three
shipyards to make up for the delay in acquisition.
The underlying theme though is Transfer of Technology
and building indigenous capabilities. The value
of this project could be twice that of the current
Scorpene project, and match or exceed the estimated
$ 10 billion-plus cost of 126 Medium Multi Role
Aircraft (M-MRCAs) being acquired by the Indian
Air Force (IAF).
Boissier said that it should be logical for
DCNS to bag this project, as an extension of the
ToT that it would have transferred to the Indian
shipyard.
 “We
understand that India wants to build indigenous
capabilities, and we are ready to transfer the
best of the technologies.”
As for the AIP, the tender for the Scorpenes
did not have this requirement, but DCNS had now
offered to fit this system on the last of the
two submarines under the ongoing project.
"We have made an informal proposal to the
Navy for AIP technology in the last two of the
Scorpenes that will be built at MDL. Now it is
up to the navy to take a call on this proposal.
We have held informal discussions in this regard."
AIP allows a submarine to operate without the
need to surface or use a snorkel to access atmospheric
oxygen and it usually excludes the use of nuclear
power, but is about augmenting or replacing diesel-electric
propulsion system of non-nuclear vessels. US,
Russia, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden are
some of the countries which have the AIP technology
on their submarines.
Boissier concluded: Through local partnership
arrangements, such as the one we have with MDL,
we can offer the Indian Navy the ability to build
vessels in India, based on proven designs and
incorporating the full range of DCNS technologies.
Local partnerships will also facilitate in-service
maintenance and through-life support. These are
win-win partnerships for greater heights, where
all parties enhance their capabilities."
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