Project 75I Race to Build Six New Conventional Submarines for Indian Navy.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday announced the selection of domestic and foreign defense companies for the construction of six diesel-electric submarines with air-independent propulsion technology as part of an effort worth more than $7 billion.

INS Kalvari is the first submarine in the P75 Scorpene-Class (Picture source: Indian Navy)

The submarines will be manufactured in India under the Navy’s P75I program and guided by the Ministry of Defence’s Strategic Partnership model, which aims to build indigenous capabilities, a senior ministry official told Defense News.

Two domestic shipyards companies — state-owned Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited and private sector firm Larsen & Toubro — were shortlisted to collaborate with five overseas original equipment manufacturers — Rubin Design Bureau of Russia, Naval Group of France, Navantia of Spain, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems of Germany, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering of South Korea.

State-owned MDL already has an active production line and has so far delivered the first two of six Scorpene-class submarines to the Indian Navy. These submarines are being constructed in venture with the French Naval Group.

“The competition between MDL and L&T is expected to be interesting. Mumbai based MDL is already working on the `Scorpene’ class submarines with the Naval Group.”

Presently the Indian Navy is operating two different types of submarines — Russian Kilo-class and German Type 209 conventional submarines. And one `Scorpene’ class submarine is the new one inducted in the Indian Navy.