Officials familiar with the development said the defence ministry approved a project worth 43,000 crore on Friday to build six advanced submarines in India under the government’s “strategic partnership” (SP) model to bolster the Indian Navy’s underwater force levels and counter China’s submarine fleet’s rapid expansion.
The defence acquisition council (DAC), India’s apex procurement body headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh, approved the proposal on Friday and the navy is soon expected to issue requests for proposal (RFP) for the programme, called P-75 India, the officials said.
The new submarines are part of the Cabinet Committee on Security’s 30-year submarine-building programme, which was approved in 1999.
The defence ministry said in a statement that this is a historic approval because it is the first case to be processed under the SP model.
“This would be one of the largest ‘Make in India’ projects and will serve to facilitate faster and more significant absorption of technology and create a tiered industrial ecosystem for submarine construction in India. From a strategic perspective, this will help reduce current dependence on imports and gradually ensure greater self-reliance,” the statement said.
The SP model envisions an Indian strategic partner collaborating with a foreign original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to set up production facilities in the country to manufacture major defence platforms.
The defence ministry approved two Indian and five foreign shipbuilders to participate in P-75I in January 2020.
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited and L&T are the Indian strategic partners who have been approved to work with foreign OEMs. The French Naval Group, German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, Russia’s Rubin Design Bureau, Spain’s Navantia, and South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Company are among the foreign yards they can team up with for the project.
