India's Fifth P-75 Scorpene Class Submarines ‘VAGIR’ Begins Sea Trails Amid Incessant Delays

The fifth submarine of Project 75, Yard 11879, Indian Navy’s Kalvari class commenced her sea trials on 01 Feb 22. The submarine was launched in Nov 2020 from the Kanhoji Angre Wet Basin of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL). The submarine would be named Vagir, after commissioning.

The submarine will now undergo intense trials of all its systems at sea, including propulsion systems, weapons and sensors. The submarine is scheduled for delivery to the Indian Navy in the year 2022 after completion of these trials.

Under the P-75, six submarines of Scorpene-class are to be constructed at MDL, Mumbai. MDL has delivered two submarines --  INS Kalvari and Khanderi  which have been commissioned in December 2017 and September 2019 respectively. 

The Scorpene Class submarines are being built in India by the MDL, under collaboration with French company, Naval Group. The Scorpene-class is called Kalvari class as per the tradition goes to rename the decommissioned warships of the Indian Navy. India had ordered six Scorpene-class boats in a deal worth $3 billion in 2005.

It aims to perform missions such as anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare as well as intelligence gathering in the Indian Ocean region and beyond under the navy's strategic outreach.

These submarines are loaded with a state of the art SONAR and sensor suite for such long range operational voyage which have an endurance of around 45 days.

 Fifth submarine is also equipped with an advanced Permanent Magnetic Synchronous motor (PERMASYN) as its propulsion motor.

The 67.5 metres long diesel-electric submarines displaces around 1,700 tonnes when submerged. 

While the Covid-19 outbreak did halt its progress due to the logistics issues, Project 75 has been marked with incessant delays and subsequent late delivery to the Indian Navy. Under the collaboration with Naval group, first Scorpene-Class submarine was to be delivered to the Indian Navy in 2012. 

Also, the Socorpene submarines are yet not fitted with Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) system, which was planned earlier. The AIP system was supposed to add desired capability to the conventional diesel-electric submarines underwater.

While Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is working on the system and put it on display on the Republic Day, it is still under the "prototype to test" phase. The journey from the technology-demonstration to the proven operational capability will take another 2 to 3 years in the making of such complex system.

India’s maritime challenges are increasing as the Indian Ocean Region is facing ripples across that encompasses a wide swathe of geography, from the Western Pacific to the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is expanding in such a scale that it positions its growing military might on the naval power. 

There are serious concern about the deployment of Chinese warships and nuclear submarines in India’s near-seas. 

As Naval chief Admiral Hari  had pointed out: "The Chinese navy has been present in Indian Ocean Region since 2008 and they have seven to eight warships here. There is constant surveillance by our aircraft and ships and their activities are kept under close watch.”

Talking about the scale of PLAN’s growth, the Navy chief said China has built 138 ships in the last 10 years and noted that every nation is entitled to have its share of capability development. As per the U.S. Government report, by 2030, the Chinese navy fleet is expanding  to include 60 diesel-electric boats and 16 nuclear attack submarines. While China is also set to launch its third aircraft carrier.

Indian Navy perspective plan clearly outlines that Navy would continue to extend across the entire spectrum of security of the nation; from peace keeping, through the low intensity segment to high-intensity conventional hostilities up to and including nuclear conflict. 

On such wide -spectrum and maritime outreach across the Indo-pacific, the Indian Navy will necessarily need to perform its varied tasks in the expanding presence of multinational  regional forces in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The Indian Navy would therefore acquire adequate deterrent war fighting capabilities where the stealthy submarines remain at the heart of Perspective Plan.

Recently,  Navy Chief Admiral Hari also pointed out that Indian navy is reformulating the Maritime Capability Perspective Plan (MCPP) for the next 15 years, but the Integrated Capability Development Plan (ICAP), which has come up, is for a ten-year period. 

How is Navy going to shape the Perspective Plan, depends on the timely execution of next P-75 I which is progressing under the first strategic partnership.