The defence ministry’s approval to build three more Scorpene-class submarines in the country with technology from France will help boost the navy’s undersea capabilities

The defence ministry’s approval to build three more Scorpene-class submarines in the country with technology from France will help boost the navy’s undersea capabilities at a time when a critical Make in India project for advanced submarines is making slow progress and the country is struggling to achieve modernisation goals set almost 25 years ago, officials aware of the matter said.

India’s defence acquisition council (DAC), headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh, on Thursday cleared the procurement of the new submarines as a follow-on order to an earlier deal under which Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) has built six Scorpene or Kalvari class submarines with technology from France’s Naval Group under a ₹23,562-crore programme called Project-75.

The three submarines are likely to be delivered five to six years after a contract is signed, and that will help fill a critical capability gap as the ₹43,000 crore Project-75(I) to build six more advanced submarines for the Indian Navy is expected to come to fruition only in the 2030s, the officials said.

“The navy needs to address its urgent operational needs and strengthen its dwindling submarine fleet,” said former navy vice chief Vice Admiral SN Ghormade (Retd). The three new submarines will help partly fill the capability gap created by the slow pace of the 30-year submarine-building programme approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security in 1999, he added.

The three submarines will be fitted with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems to allow them to remain submerged for longer.

“The procurement of additional submarines, with higher indigenous content, will not only help in maintaining required force level and operational readiness of the Indian Navy, but also create significant employment opportunities in the domestic sector,” the defence ministry said in a statement. “It will also help MDL in further enhancing its capability and expertise in submarine construction.”

Spain’s state-owned shipbuilder Navantia and engineering major Larsen & Toubro on July 10 signed an agreement to jointly bid for Project-75(I). The agreement has put the firms in competition with the combine of Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) and MDL, which signed an agreement on June 7 to bid for the same project under the Indian government’s strategic partnership (SP) model.

Project-75(I) requires an Indian bidder to tie up with a foreign collaborator and build six conventional submarines equipped with AIP systems. The first submarine must have a minimum of 45% indigenisation, with the indigenous content going up to 60% in the sixth.

The project is one of the biggest under the Make in India initiative.

India cleared the project two years ago to strengthen the navy’s capabilities and provide momentum to a defence indigenisation drive. The SP model envisages indigenous production of major defence platforms by an Indian firm collaborating with a foreign original equipment manufacturer.

In January 2020, the defence ministry cleared two Indian and five foreign shipbuilders to take part in Project-75(I). The Indian strategic partners cleared were MDL and L&T. The foreign yards cleared included the Naval Group, Russia’s Rubin Design Bureau, Navantia and South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Company. Naval Group and Rubin Design Bureau withdrew from the competition a year ago.