New Delhi: India has taken a step closer towards completing the long-pending mega project to procure six new diesel-electric submarines for the Navy, with the opening of the commercial bid submitted by Mumbai-based Mazagon Docks (MDL) in association with German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).
The Ministry of Defense will now begin techno-commercial negotiations with MDL-TKMS to ‘Project-75 India‘ to build the six stealth conventional submarines, with land attack cruise missiles and air independent propulsion (AIP) for greater underwater resistance, sources said on Thursday.
This, in effect, means that the German submarine has emerged victorious over its Spanish rival, for which L&T had partnered with the Navantia shipyard. Although the initial cost of the project was estimated at Rs 43,000 crore when the ‘acceptance of need (AoN)’ was granted several years ago, it will now be around Rs 70,000 crore. “It will be the task of the contract negotiation committee (CNC) of the Ministry of Defense to arrive at a reasonable cost,” said a source.
This comes after the Ministry of Defense’s technical supervision committee deemed MDL-TKMS’ bid to be “compliant” with the technical parameters set out in the tender, while L&T-Navantia was “non-compliant” in the competition. The committee approved field evaluation tests conducted by the Navy last year, during which the German submarine demonstrated a “fully functional” AIP system at sea. The Spanish submarine, however, was unable to present a sea-tested AIP system.
AIP gives a diesel-electric submarine the stealthy ability to stay underwater for about two weeks, unlike a ship without it which has to surface or “dive” every two days to obtain oxygen to recharge its batteries. batteries. Of course, it will take time to sign the actual P-75I contract, with delivery of the first submarine scheduled for six or seven years later, sources said.
MDL, of course, is also preparing to build three more French-origin Scorpene submarines with AIP at a cost of around Rs 38,000 crore. The prime minister-led cabinet security committee must approve the deal before the end of this fiscal year on March 31, as TOI earlier reported.
These three new ships will be in addition to the six Scorpene or Kalvari class submarines already built at MDL, without AIP, under the over Rs 23,000 crore ‘Project-75’. Both the P-75 (additional Scorpenes) and P-75I are crucial for the Navy because it has only six old Russian Kilo-class and four German HDW submarines left in its conventional submarine fleet, in addition to the six new Scorpenes.