Why in News?

• The 4th Scorpene class conventional submarine, INS Vela, was commissioned into the Navy in the presence of then Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh on 25th November, 2021.

India’s submarine strength

• Currently, India has 15 conventional diesel-electric submarines, classified as SSKs, and one nuclear ballistic submarine, classified as SSBN.
• Of the SSKs,

1. 4 are Shishumar Class, which were bought and then built in India in collaboration with the Germany in 1980s.
2. 8 are Kilo Class or Sindhughosh Class bought from Russia (including erstwhile USSR) between 1984 and 2000.
3. 3 are Kalvari Class Scorpene submarines built at India’s Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in partnership with France’s Naval Group, earlier called DCNS.

• The SSBN, INS Arihant, is a nuclear- powered ballistic missile submarine, built indigenously.

History of India’s submarine acquisition

• India got its first submarine, INS Kalvari of the Foxtrot Class, from the USSR in December 1967.
• In 1981, India signed a contract to buy 2 Type 209 (Shishumar Class) submarines from West Germany, while two other were to be assembled at Mazgaon Dock.
• Russia offered India its Kilo Class submarines in 1986 which formed the Kilo Class submarines for India.

Delays in modernisation

• Due to policy-paralysis, 30-year plan (2000-30) for indigenous submarine construction, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security in 1999, was signed in 2005.
• It envisaged two production lines of six submarines each, built in India in partnership with a foreign Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). The projects were called P-75 and P-75I.
• P-75, has been delayed and P-75I is yet to be signed.

Current projects to manufacture submarines

• Of the six being built, P-75 has delivered three Kalvari Class Scorpene submarines so far.
• P-75I will be India’s first under the Strategic Partnership Model, which came up in 2015.
• The government will give the contract to an Indian Strategic Partner (SP), which will then partner with a foreign OEM.
• The two selected SPs are MDL and Larsen and Toubro.
• The 5 selected OEMs are France’s Naval Group, Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Russia’s ROE, South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, and Spain’s Navantia.

China’s capability and India’s worry

• India needs more submarines for our own maritime security.
• Chinese are going to be positioning a lot more ships and submarines in the Indian Ocean in the coming years.
• China is giving Pakistan 8 submarines and 4 destroyers, which can be used as proxy by China.
• According to the report by Pentagon, Chinese Navy will “likely to maintain between 65 and 70 submarines through the 2020s, replacing older units with more capable units on a near one-to-one basis”.

Why are nuclear submarines so coveted?

• SSNs have infinite capacity to stay dived.
• They are propelled by a nuclear- powered engine, these submarines only need to come to the surface for replenishing supplies for the crew.
• SSNs are also able to move faster underwater than conventional submarines.
• All this allows a navy to deploy them at farther distances, and quicker.

India’s nuclear submarines

• India is among six nations that have SSNs, alongside the US, the UK, Russia, France and China.
• India got its first SSN in 1987 from the Soviet Navy, which it rechristened INS Chakra, which was decommissioned in 1991.
• India has developed its own SSBNs, INS Arihant and INS Arighat. Unlike the other submarines, the SSBNs are strategic programmes and fall under the Strategic Forces Command, the triservices command responsible for India’s nuclear weapons.
• The government has also decided that of the 12 submarines to be built indigenously after the P75 and P75i projects, six would be SSNs.