Explained: The Indian Navy’s P-75I submarine project that France has pulled out of

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s is receiving great response on his three day, three country Europe visit.

However, the foreign visit suffered a minor setback on Tuesday when it was reported that the French defence company Naval Group has announced that it would not be able to join the P-75 India (P-75I) project.

A statement by Naval Group said that they were exiting the project because it could not satisfy the conditions of the Request for Proposal (RFP).

The announcement came a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to France, where he will meet newly re-elected French President Emmanuel Macron.

Here’s a better understanding of what is the P-75 India project and its significance to the Indian Navy.

All about the P-75 India project

In June 1999, the Cabinet Committee on Security had approved a plan for the Indian Navy to induct indigenously build and induct submarines by 2030. It was broken down in two phases — the P-75 and P-75I.

Under the first phase of P-75, signed in 2005, India and France signed a $3.75 billion contract for building six Scorpene class submarines. The executing company on the Indian side was Mazgaon Docks Ltd, and on the French side, it was DCNS, which is now called Naval Group.

The first submarine under the project was commissioned in December 2017. Subsequently, the other five have been built and on 20 April, INS Vagsheer was launched and would be commissioned by 2023.

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The P-75I phase envisages the construction of six conventional submarines with better sensors and weapons and the Air Independent Propulsion System (AIP).

The Nirmala Sitharaman-headed Defence Acquisition Council cleared the project in 2019 under the strategic partnership model.

As per the plan, an Indian shipyard was selected by the government, which would nominate the foreign original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

The Ministry of Defence then appointed a high-powered committee to assess the eight Indian shipyards and select the eligible ones for the project.

After much deliberation, it was decided that state-run Mazgaon Dockyard Limited and Larsen and Toubro would be the chosen ‘Selected Partner’.

Besides the Naval Group, there were four companies, who were part of the bidding, including Russia’s Rosoboronexport, Germany’s Thyssenkrupp, Spain’s Navantia and South Korea’s Daewoo.

Why Naval Group has pulled out

The French firm pulled out of the project as it could not meet the conditions of the Request for Proposal (RFI) put out by the Indian Navy.

Laurent Videau, Country and Managing Director, Naval Group India, was quoted as saying by News18, “The present RFP requires that the fuel cell AIP (air-independent propulsion) be sea proven, which is not the case for us yet since the French Navy does not use such propulsion system.”

This comes to the question of what is AIP?

Simply put, AIP technology allows a conventional submarine to remain submerged for much longer than ordinary diesel-electric submarines.

Currently, all conventional submarines have to surface to recharge the batteries that allow the boat to function underwater. However, AIP permits a submarine to remain under water for more than a fortnight, compared to two-three days for diesel-powered boats.

India wants the AIP technology, as none of its current ships have it while Both Pakistan and China have AIP-equipped submarines.

India’s submarine fleet

The Naval Group’s announcement could lead to further delays in India’s plan of having more submarines in its arsenal.

As of today, India has 16 conventional diesel-electric submarines. After the last two Kalvari Class subs are commissioned under P-75, this number will go up to 18. India also has two nuclear ballistic submarines, reports Indian Express.

On the other hand, Pakistan has nine diesel-electric submarines, as per Global Fire Index — a website that analyses the strength of the armies of countries around the world.

China, which is also posing a threat to India, boasts of being the largest navy in the world. In 2020, Beijing had six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) that are armed with nuclear missiles, as well as around 40 attack submarines, of which six are nuclear-powered, according to Military Balance, the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ annual assessment of military capacity around the world.

With inputs from agencies

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