The Indian Ministry of Defense has published the request for proposal (RFP) on Tuesday, July 20, 2021, for the production of six indigenously made conventional submarines in collaboration with the local and foreign defense industries, for the program, called P-75(I) India.
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INS Karanj - third Kalvari class Submarine was commissioned at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, March 2021. (Picture source Indian Navy)
Under the P-75 program, the Indian Navy intends to acquire six diesel-electric submarines, which will also feature advanced air-independent propulsion systems to enable them to stay submerged for longer duration and substantially increase their operational range
Project-75(I) envisages indigenous construction of six modern conventional submarines (including associated shore support, Engineering Support Package, training and spares package) with contemporary equipment, weapons & sensors including Fuel-Cell based AIP (Air Independent Propulsion Plant), advanced torpedoes, modern missiles and state of the art countermeasure systems. This would provide a major boost to the indigenous design and construction capability of submarines in India, in addition to bringing in the latest submarine design and technologies as part of the project.
The RFP was issued to the Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the two Indian companies shortlisted following a long-drawn process, according to the Indian defense ministry.
Both L&T and MDL will have to collaborate with one of the five already short-listed foreign shipyards — Daewoo Shipbuilding (South Korea), ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (Germany), Navantia (Spain) and Naval Group (France) and JSC ROE(Russia).
Currently, Indian Navy has a total of 16 submarines including one Arihant-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, four Shishumar-class diesel-electric attack submarines, three Kalvari-class diesel-electric attack submarines based on the French Scorpène-class submarine and eight Sindhughosh-class Russian-made Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines.
