Chandigarh: The much-hyped commissioning of INS Vagsheer, the sixth and last Project 75 (P-75) French licence-built Kalvari (Scorpene)-class conventional diesel-electric submarine (SSK) – scheduled to take place next week – typifies the interminable delays plaguing the Indian Navy’s underwater platform inductions to replace aging boats, and in plugging serious capability gaps in existing ones.
The 1,615-tonne ‘hunter-killer’ SSK, built by Mazagaon Dockyard Limited (MDL) in Mumbai via a transfer of technology, will join service six years late, and almost two decades after the over $3-billion P-75 programme was inked in 2005 with Amaris, then jointly owned by the French shipyard Direction des Constructions Navales (DCNS), and Thales and Spain’s Navantia, which later morphed into France’s Naval Group. Or more appositely, Vagsheer’s induction comes 28 years after the SSK project’s initial approval was accorded by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), in 1997.
🌊 Dive into the future of naval supremacy ! ⚓🎥
Get ready for the glimpse of Vaghsheer – #India’s formidable new submarine.
Built to safeguard India’s 🇮🇳 maritime interests and deliver the decisive edge, this underwater powerhouse is set to be commissioned on 15th January… pic.twitter.com/VLkQzntiC1
— Western Naval Command (@IN_WNC) January 10, 2025
At the time of signing the Scorpene deal, the MoD had announced that the first SSK would be inducted by late 2012, and the remaining five commissioned at the rate of one boat per year, till all P-75 deliveries were completed by 2017. In reality, however, INS Kalvari, P-75’s lead boat was delivered to the Indian Navy only in 2017 – ironically when the programme was originally projected to end – following a five-six-year delay; the other five – INS Khanderi, INS Karanj, INS Vela and INS Vagir – were commissioned between 2019 and late 2022.
But all the six boats entered service without their primary weapon system-heavy weight torpedoes (HWTs), after plans to import 98 of these from Italy’s Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquet (WASS) for Rs 1,800 crore was scrapped in 2017.
The cancellation came after Finmeccanica, the parent company of WASS (now known as Leonardo), faced corruption charges in 2013 regarding the import of 12 AW101 Westland helicopters for Indian VIPs, a case that continues to rumble on, 12 years later.
But in December, seven years after the WASS tender was terminated, the MoD signed a Rs 877-crore contract with Naval Group, to arm all six Scorpene SSK’s with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)-designed ‘Varunastra’ Electronic HWTs.
However, the MoD did not disclose the price of the torpedoes, manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Limited, in its announcement via the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on December 30, 2024. Industry estimates suggest that each Varunastra torpedo costs between Rs 10-12 crore. Consequently, the total cost for the 98 torpedoes originally ordered by the Indian Navy would be an extra Rs 980-1,176 crore.
Also read: Why do Accidents Happen to the Indian Navy?
Naval Group’s collaboration was essential in this endeavour to assist the Indian Navy and DRDO technicians in customising the submarines’ 533 mm torpedo tubes to Varunastra’s guidance and fire control system and aligning it with the submarines’ SUBTICS combat management system. Fitting the boats with Varunastra that has a range of 40 km and speed of up to 40 knots (74 kmph) onto the submarines necessitates time-consuming hardware adaptations, software integration and extended testing, industry sources said.
Alongside, the MoD had also signed a Rs 1,990-crore contract with MDL to integrate the Kalvari-class boats with a DRDO-developed air-independent propulsion (AIP) system to enhance their underwater endurance. Together, these two contracts would add Rs 2,867 crore to the submarine’s overall price – apart, of course from the torpedoes estimated cost – which had earlier escalated significantly in a shockingly brazen manner which merits recounting.
Soon after MDL began constructing three Scorpene boats in 2007-08, it emerged that the original 2005 contract had inexplicably omitted to include assorted critical components like engines, generators, sub-assemblies and raw material, including specialised steel as part of the deal. Consequently, the cabinet committee on security headed by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced into approving an additional sum for the newly formed Mazagaon Procurement Materials (MPM) entity, created especially to source this supplementary equipment and to progress the stalled Scorpene programme.
Eventually the protracted negotiations to purchase all this gear raised P-75’s contract price from the initially negotiated Rs 18,798 crore to Rs 23,562 crore in 2010 and revised thereafter to Rs 25,737.44 crore in July 2017, registering a 26.96% hike of Rs 6,939.44 crore.
“Such an additional financial grant for an already signed deal was unusual,” said Amit Cowshish, former MoD financial advisor for acquisitions. It indicated poor planning and a lack of understanding by the MoD and Indian Navy for which no accountability was apportioned.
Furthermore, other than glitches during the platforms’ construction, like a breach and flooding of MDLs dockyard which further deferred the programme, P-75 was adversely impacted by an investigative report in The Australian newspaper detailing their operational and combat capabilities. This included their stealth capabilities, frequencies at which they gathered intelligence, their noise levels at various speeds, in addition to their diving depths, range and endurance. Also specified were the speed and conditions for using the submarines periscope and propeller and radiated noise levels that occurred when the boat surfaced. It also included specifics on the platform torpedo launch, communication and navigation systems.
In response, the Indian Navy dismissed the revelations, declaring that the documents posted by The Australian had been duly examined and posed no security compromise, as vital operational parameters had been redacted by the newspaper itself. But senior naval veterans and security analysts questioned the Indian Navy’s assertions, as did The Australian’s reporter responsible for the expose.
“These leaks had potentially restricted the operational scope and capability of the Scorpene boats even before they were inducted into service,” said a senior retired naval officer. The Indian Navy, he added, requesting anonymity, would need to be ‘especially creative’ in employing these platforms, as a large proportion of their competence had been duly compromised.
Presently, the MoD is poised to conclude the deal for three additional Scorpenes to be built by MDL during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s possible Paris visit next month to attend the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit being hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron. But the first of these boats, according to the Indian Navy, is only likely to be commissioned by 2031.
Meanwhile, with Vagsheer’s commissioning, scheduled for January 15, the Indian Navy’s complement of SSK’s, will include 17 platforms, of which seven Russian Type 877 EKM ‘Kilo’-class variants and four German HDW Type 209/1500 boats were all between 25 and 39 years old. At least two Russian boats were nearing retirement, and almost all of the remaining five, along with many of the latter submarine-type, require urgent and costly upgrades at a time when budgets are shrinking.
In contrast, the Chinese navy operates 48-50 SSKs that include Type 039 ‘Song’-class and Type 039A ‘Yuan’-class boats. In an Observer Research Foundation analysis published last November, retired Rear Admiral Monty Khanna mentioned that China had been commissioning two to three SKK”s each year, in addition to building nuclear-powered general purpose attack submarines or SSNs and ballistic missile submarines or SSBNs at an estimated rate of 4.5-6 per year. The former submariner stated that these Chinese SSKs had ‘evolved substantially in their adoption of technology’.
Also read: Installation of Shivaji Statue in Pangong Tso Sparks Veterans’ Backlash Over Political Symbolism
China had also signed a $4-5 billion deal with Pakistan in 2015 for eight Hangor-class attack SSKs, reportedly equipped with air-independent propulsion (AIP) capability provided by Swedish Stirling AB, according to US’s Defense News. Four of these S-20 boats, which were an export version of China’s Type 039A ‘Yuan’-class submarines, were presently being built in China and the remainder by Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works, via a transfer of technology. The Pakistan Navy is expected to commission the first of these boats, launched by China’s Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group’s (WSIGs) shipyard at Wuhan last May, sometime later this year.
In comparison, efforts initiated 17 years ago by the MoD and the Indian Navy to locally build six new SSKs under Project -75 (India) with AIP and land-attack capability in collaboration with a foreign original equipment manufacturer (OEM), remain a work in progress. Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), which has a collaborative agreement with MDL, is offering its Type 214 boat while rival Spanish manufacturer Navantia has partnered with Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to build its S-80 submarine.
Under active negotiation since 2021, P-75I has been dogged by bureaucratic delays, design ‘overreach’ in the Navy’s Staff Qualitative Requirements (NSQRs) for the platforms, unrealistic delivery schedules, impracticable liability clauses and other rigid technology transfer requirements.
These adverse factors also led several of the world’s leading submarine OEMs to decline participation in the P-75I project. This development is a separate debacle, which can be discussed another time, as the Indian Navy continues to delay finalising the deal.
