INDIAN defence minister noting India’s growing strength on June 24 said: ‘… India is now among the five major naval powers in the world. We should aim to be among the top three in the next ten to twelve years’, as reported by the Economic Times online the day.
The Indian navy has a wide variety of warships with extensive fire power. Its carrier task force and submarines provide strategic sea basing to project power in distant waters and also ashore from the sea. Its naval assets are keeping its adversaries in check. In the context of an evolving Indo-Pacific geopolitics, India has been resiliently pursuing the expansion of strategic assets.
After World War II, India was the first country in Asia to enter the elite club of aircraft carrier in 1961. Three decades later, India announced in 1991 its plan to construct two aircraft carriers against the backdrop of a three-carrier concept.
In 1993, the retiring naval chief expressed the commitment to a domestically built large aircraft carrier to be ready for trial by the turn of the century. Indian cabinet committee on security cleared the construction of first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC-1), the 45,000-tonne carrier in 1999. The keel of IAC-1 was laid in 2009. It is expected to join the navy in 2022–2023. After IAC-1, the navy intends to build IAC-2, the 65,000-tonne INS Vishal and commission it in 2030.
Jane’s Fighting Ships mentioned in 1999-2000 that in India, aircraft carrier takes the second place to the nuclear powered submarine programme. Jane’s Defence Weekly July 14, 1999 issue quoted the then naval chief as saying: ‘The carrier is the navy’s number one construction priority’. Debates or differences of opinion on carrier versus submarine still continue. India’s chief of defence staff said in February 2020 that the ‘Indian Navy may not get approval for a third aircraft carrier [IAC-2] any time soon. The reason, he said, was the cost associated with building aircraft carrier, the priority instead should be to bolster the Navy’s submarine fleet.’ The Indian chief of naval staff, on the other hand, told a press conference on December 3, 2020: The ‘third aircraft carrier is absolutely necessary at an immediate basis.’
After the Kargil war in May 1999, India’s cabinet committee on security approved the building of 24 submarines by 2030 and its implementation began after eight years. In 2007, the Indian government cleared the procurement of six submarines known as Project 75. The ‘submarine building programme’ stalled again. After 14 years of delay since P75, the defence acquisition council on June 4, 2021 approved Project 75I, the purchase of six conventional submarines. The suffix ‘I’ denotes ‘Make in India’, meaning all six boats will be built under the strategic partnership model, which refers to the participation of Indian shipyards along with their foreign original equipment manufacturer.
Three submarines of P75 joined the Indian navy between 2017 and 2021. The remaining three are under construction or in trial phases. P75 was scheduled for completion by 2017. It will take a couple of years more to complete all boats to its optimum operational efficiency. Submarines of P75 were to be fitted with domestically developed air independent propulsion system. But the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation was slow to develop the system delaying the schedule of submarine construction.
Submarines under P75(I) is also planned to have domestically built air independent propulsion system. But the DRDO demonstrated air independent propulsion system in March 2021 on a ‘land-based prototype.’ The DRDO will now develop its marine version for use in submarines. It is thought that submarines under P75I may be fitted out with foreign air independent propulsion system, instead of the one built domestically.
The Indian navy’s nuclear submarine programme began in the 1980s. In 1991, the launch date for the first submarine was set for 2007. the first SSBN INS Arihant was launched on July 26, 2009 and commissioned on February 23, 2016. The second SSBN, INS Arighat, is expected to join the navy in 2022–2023. In the context of growing ‘China factor’ in the Indian ocean, the Indian navy approached the Modi government to amend its ‘30 year submarine building plan.’ The proposal was to drop six conventional submarines from the list and add six nuclear submarines.
India has been operating submarines for about six decades. ‘It has a submarine design bureau. In last three decades, India spent billions of dollars in the transfer of technology every time it bought submarine from Germany, Russia and France’. It is unknown why the transfer of technology was not put to good use.
The first five boats of P75I will have 45 per cent indigenous and the sixth boat will be 60 per cent. It indicates a gap that persists in domestic industrial supply chain. It also means that India will have a considerable dependence on external sources which could delay the project in case of any breakdown in external sources of supply. Any way, the lead submarine of P75I is planned to join the navy in 2031 when 12 old submarines will be nearing the end of service life.
The Indian navy’s ship building programmes have been generally lengthy by international standards. The comptroller and auditor general of India identified procedural and technological reasons that delay ship building projects and increase the cost. In 2011, the comptroller and auditor general published audit reports on three key projects — ‘Project 15A for building three 6,500 tonne frigates [destroyer], Project 17 for three 4,900 tonne frigates and Project 28 for four Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvettes.’
The audit report mentioned that ‘delay in finalisation of structural drawings, timely availability of steel and inadequate infrastructure of the defence public sector shipyards’ were causes for time overruns. The report criticised the ‘navy’s methodology for estimating the cost of ships’ which resulted in ‘unrealistic approvals for funding projects with every likelihood of cost growth at the time of project itself.’
‘The [audit] report observed that the original sanction for the Project 17 in 1998 was Rs 2,250 crore but it was revised to Rs 8,101 crore in 2006. Similarly, the cost of Project-15A went up from Rs 3,580 crore in 2001 to Rs11,662 crore in February 2006’ (DNA online, June 21, 2021).
Warship building programmes are generally complex in consideration of cost, design, technology and strength of supply chain which could impact a project in different ways. India’s nuclear submarine project completed with time overruns. The IAC-1 has delays. P75 has time overruns. P15A, P17 and P28 had time and cost overruns. Besides procedural delays and industrial capacity gaps, the effects of the pandemic could increase the risk of missing deadlines.
Mohammad Abdur Razzak is a retired commodore of the Bangladesh navy.
INDIAN defence minister noting India’s growing strength on June 24 said: ‘… India is now among the five major naval powers in the world. We should aim to be among the top three in the next ten to twelve years’, as reported by...
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