Russia’s Rosoboronexport state arms seller, part of Russia’s ROSTEC state hi-tech corporation, is ready to take part in India’s tender for the delivery of submarines under the P75i program, the press office of Rosoboronexport told TASS at the Aero India 2021 international aerospace show.

Russia’s Rosoboronexport state arms seller, part of Russia’s ROSTEC state hi-tech corporation, is ready to take part in India’s tender for the delivery of submarines under the P75i program, the press office of Rosoboronexport told TASS at the Aero India 2021 international aerospace show.

“Rosoboronexport is ready to bid for it [the tender] if it receives relevant documents. India has not announced the tender so far,” the press office said.

The P75i program for six conventional submarines with an air-independent propulsion unit and a strike missile system was initiated in 2007. The project is worth about $6.9 billion.

As of the beginning of 2021, the tender has not been announced.

It was initially planned that the supply of the first P75i submarines to the Indian Navy would begin in 2030. However, experts believe that the delivery will start later because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The P75I Scorpene class submarines will be armed with six torpedo launching tubes, 18 heavy weapons, tube-launched MBDA SM-39 Exocet anti-ship missiles and precision-guided weapons. The weapons are carried in weapon launching tubes and can be easily reloaded at sea. Indian Navy has already different types of Russians submarines including Akula II INS Chakra nuclear powered attack submarine. INS Sindhughosh-class submarines are Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines in active service with the Indian Navy.

The Project 75I-class submarine is a follow-on of the Project 75 Kalvari-class submarine for the Indian Navy. Under this project, the Indian Navy intends to acquire six diesel-electric submarines featuring advanced air-independent propulsion systems. The Kalvari class is a class of diesel-electric attack submarines based on the Scorpène-class submarine being built for the Indian Navy.