The INS Sindhurakshak disaster last week, which blew a big hole in the Indian Navy's operational capabilities, has further compounded the problems.
Indian Navy is left with only 13 aging diesel-electric submarines - 11 of them over 20 years old. Four of the 13 submarines - nine Kilo-class of Russian origin and four HDW of German-origin are undergoing "a long refit'' to extend their operational lives. "Two kilo-class or Sindhugosh series submarines are at Hindustan Shipyard Ltd at Visakhapatnam, while two HDW or Shishumar-class vessels are at the Mumbai naval dockyard for the long refits," said a source.
The Navy does have one nuclear-powered submarine INS Chakra, taken on a 10-year lease from Russia last year, but it's not armed with nuclear-tipped missiles due to international treaties. INS Chakra can serve as a deadly `hunter-killer' of enemy submarines and warships with its 300-km range Klub-S land-attack cruise missiles as well as other missiles and advanced torpedoes.
Pakistan Navy, incidentally, is the first force in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to have submarines equipped with air-independent propulsion (AIP) in the shape of three French Agosta-90B vessels.
Conventional submarines have to surface every few days to get oxygen to recharge their batteries. Bu those fitted with AIP can stay submerged for much longer periods to significantly boost their stealth and combat capabilities, somewhat narrowing the gap with nuclear-powered submarines.
India, however, has even dithered in taking a decision to fit AIP in the last two of the six French Scorpene submarines being constructed for over Rs 23,000 crore at Mazagon Docks under "Project-75'', which is already running four years behind the original 2012-17 induction schedule. The first Scorpene will be delivered only by November 2016.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/lkn9hmo
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