With the selection of the Rafale Marine by the Indian Navy, here’s a look at how it happened, and the challenges and consequences ahead.
Also noteworthy will be the Exocet anti-ship missile, with the SM39 submarine variant already delivered for the Indian Navy’s Scorpene submarines.
INS Vela (Stingray) was commissioned in Mumbai on Thursday and is the fourth of six Project-75 Scorpene submarines.
The submarine has been conferred the name of the erstwhile Foxtrot-class Karanj, which was decommissioned in 2003.
StratPost recently had the opportunity to pose some questions to the senior-most submariner in the Indian Navy, Vice Admiral Srikant, Inspector General Nuclear Submarines (IGNS), about the state and future of the submarine arm, on the occasion of its golden jubilee.
Two of the contenders; Mitsubishi/Kawasaki of Japan and Navantia of Spain have failed to submit the requested information for their Soryu and S-80 submarines to the Indian Navy.
The Khanderi has been named for an older Foxtrot-class Indian Navy boat decommissioned in 1989 and is expected to be delivered to the navy by the end of the year, after she completes sea trials.
The French warship builder will be focusing on the Scorpene submarine and the Mistral-class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD), both of which are on offer to the Indian Navy in future acquisitions.
The Italian defense major will be represented at DefExpo by its group companies AgustaWestland, Alenia Aermacchi, DRS Tactical Systems, Inc. (a division of DRS Technologies), SELEX Galileo, Oto Melara and WASS – in DEFEXPO 2012, exhibiting products, platforms and technological solutions in the field of helicopters, aeronautic, radar systems, naval and land armaments and underwater systems.
French warship builder DCNS will display the Scorpene submarine design at DefExpo 2012 in New Delhi, six of which are under construction for the Indian Navy at the Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in Mumbai.
To shore up its depleting submarine fleet, India will this year issue a $11 billion global tender for building six more next generation vessels, navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said here Wednesday.
Air-Independent Propulsion is an auxiliary system for increasing the endurance of the boat’s sub-surface operability. The DCNS system, known as MESMA (Module d’Energie Sous-Marine Autonome), is based on the combustion of stored oxygen and ethanol to augment battery-powered propulsion.
The Indian Navy recently got a chance to run its eye over the Royal Malaysian Navy’s Scorpene submarine KD (Kapal Diraja or Royal Ship) Tun Razzaq, which arrived at Kochi on Friday, en route to Malaysia.
The Indian Navy’s submarine strength is projected to fall by 30 per cent in 2015 and 50 per cent in 2020, at the current pace of the acquisition process.
This may be significant for the Indian MMRCA contest as five of the original six contenders for the Brazilian order are also vying for Indian Air Force order. “We came up on top in the technical evaluation,” said a source from Dassault, who also indicated the parameters of the two contests to be similar.
