If there is war in the Indian Ocean, will Indian Navy submarines match up to the task?

Karachi: In the war between India and Pakistan in 1971, the Indian Navy destroyed the PNS Ghazi of the Pakistani Navy without the help of a submarine. When the Kargil war took place in 1999, the Indian Navy quietly took action to prevent a naval attack by Pakistan.

December 8 was Indian Submarine Day and on this occasion, several Indian Navy veterans talked about this ‘silent killer’. These veterans expressed concern over how the state of the Indian Navy’s submarine fleet was becoming a matter of concern.

Indian Navy veterans also expressed concern over the fact that the absence of submarines has now started affecting the Indian Navy’s underwater capabilities against a country like Pakistan.

On December 20, the Indian Navy received the fifth submarine of the Scorpion class, named Wazir. This submarine has been prepared by Mumbai-based Manjhgaon Dock Shipbuilders and was co-developed with France. The submarine is part of Project-75 of the Indian Navy. Under this project, six Scorpion submarines are to be received by the Indian Navy. The trial of the sixth submarine is going on.

India currently has 15 conventional submarines and one nuclear submarine. But this fleet is about three decades old. However, the INS Arihant, the latest addition to the Indian Navy’s submarine strength, is expected to plug this weakness to some extent.

INS Arihant is India’s first indigenous nuclear submarine that has been inducted in the Indian Navy.

INS Arihant is a nuclear-propelled submarine weighing 6,000 tonnes. It is a ship submersible ballistic, nuclear submarine (SSBN) i.e. a submarine that can carry ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads.

Its design is based on the Akula-1 class submarines of Russia. It has a 83mw pressurised water reactor which has been built with Russian assistance.

The sea trials for INS Arihant started in December 2014 and it was declared fit for operations in February 2016.

INS Arihant is part of the Indian Navy’s secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project. This project is being carried out under the supervision the Prime Minister’s Office and involves agencies and establishments such as the DRDO, the Department of Atomic Energy, the Submarine Design Group of the Directorate of Naval Design, apart from private companies such as L&T.

In April 2022, the INS Arihant test fired the nuclear capable ballistic missile K-4. The missile is named after former President APJ Abdul Kalam.

INS Arihant is equipped with four vertical launch tubes which can carry 12 K-15 missiles or four larger K-4 missiles. This indegenous submarine completes India’s nuclear triad - capability of firing nuclear weapons from land, air and sea.

According to defence experts, the Indian Navy needs a minimum of 24 submarines while the optimum number is 30. This is the plan that was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security formed after the 1999 Kargil war. Under this plan, the Indian Navy was to get 12 diesel submarines by 2012 and 12 more by 2030. But the delay in this project has defence experts worried.

The capability of the Pakistan Navy is less than that of its counterpart in India, but it is trying to steal a march on the Indian Navy. Defence experts believe that the time has come for India to further enhance its underwater capabilities.

China is helping Pakistan

In 2015, Pakistan had signed an agreement with China. Under this agreement, China will build eight Yuan class submarines for the Pakistan Navy. These submarines will be conventional Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) which cost five billion dollars.

Four of these submarines will be built in China while four will be built at the Karachi Shipyard. The pace at which this program is going on, it is believed that the Pakistan Navy will get the first submarine by the end of 2023.

Over the next decade, Pakistan will get all eight submarines. After this, the Pakistan Navy will be far ahead of India as far as the capabilities of fighting underwater warfare is concerned.

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