Indian Navy Discussions and Updates

[Sandhi Yudha]

The new AIP plug developed by the Naval Materials Research Laboratory (NMRL) of DRDO, will be retrofitted to each Scorpène/Kalvari-class submarine during their first normal refit that occurs every 7 years. The AIP plug will be around 10 meters long which will lengthen each submarine to around 77,56 m.

India's Fuel Cell based AIP System Crosses Important Milestone - Naval News

India's DRDO has achieved an important milestone in the development of Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) System...

www.navalnews.com

 

[koxinga]

Back in October 2020, the Indian Navy cancelled a contract with the Reliance Naval and Engineering Shipyard (formerly Pipapav Shipward, before it was bought over by the Reliance Group) for five Naval Offshore Patrol Vessels (NPOV) due to repeatedly delays (almost 7 years)

Navy cancels Reliance Naval's Rs 2,500 cr offshore patrol vessel contract | Business Standard News (business-standard.com)

They had, however launched two of the NPOVs in July 2017 and were in the process of outfitting them (First Two NOPVs Shachi and Shruti launched by RDEL at Pipavav, Gujarat | Indian Navy). If I am not mistaken, at least a third hull exist.

While IN did the right thing eventually, are they planning to scrap the two vessels? RNAVAL is in receivership and although there are some interests in the last few days (Jindal Steel, Russian team inspect Anil Ambani’s Gujarat shipyard that’s up for sale (theprint.in) )

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

A news article of a couple of days ago.
Looking to the current situation in the Indian Ocean, this makes actually sense.

Indian Navy favors 6 nuclear attack submarines over a 3rd aircraft carrier - Meta-Defense.fr

www.meta-defense.fr

 

[John Fedup]

A news article of a couple of days ago.
Looking to the current situation in the Indian Ocean, this makes actually sense.

Indian Navy favors 6 nuclear attack submarines over a 3rd aircraft carrier - Meta-Defense.fr

www.meta-defense.fr

Agree, if you can afford one program at this point in time, six SSNs should be favoured over a carrier. Besides, who knows how long it would take to equip a new carrier with locally developed marinized CATOBAR or STOBAR jets.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

The Indian Navy procured eight P-8I aircraft from Boeing in January 2009, via Direct Commercial Sale and contracted for an additional four aircraft in July 2016. So this order of six (6) P-8I Patrol aircraft and related equipment for an estimated cost of $2,42 billion, comes on top of these 12 P-8Is.

India – P-8I and Associated Support | Defense Security Cooperation Agency

www.dsca.mil

 

[ngatimozart]

The Indian Navy procured eight P-8I aircraft from Boeing in January 2009, via Direct Commercial Sale and contracted for an additional four aircraft in July 2016. So this order of six (6) P-8I Patrol aircraft and related equipment for an estimated cost of $2,42 billion, comes on top of these 12 P-8Is.

India – P-8I and Associated Support | Defense Security Cooperation Agency

www.dsca.mil

I forgot about that second tranche, so with this third tranche that will bring their total up to 18. IIRC that makes them the second largest user of the airframe behind the USN, even though some of the internal gubbins are different.

 

[John Fedup]

A short report on India’s Arihant class SSBN. A very secretive program, even more than other SSBN’s from around the world. Two boats so far with a third well underway.

5 Years Of Submarine Secrecy: India's Unique Arihant Class Is Still In Hiding - Naval News

5 years after she was commissioned in 2016, the Indian Navy’s INS Arihant remains something of an enigma. Her existence is no secret, in fact it is a proud achievement of Indian industry. But photographs are very few. And nearly all those you will find on the internet are many years old. It is a...

www.navalnews.com

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

An interesting article about the new Arihant class.
It seems to be the most compact SSBN design in the world, with only 4 launch silos.

5 Years Of Submarine Secrecy: India's Unique Arihant Class Is Still In Hiding - Naval News

5 years after she was commissioned in 2016, the Indian Navy’s INS Arihant remains something of an enigma. Her existence is no secret, in fact it is a proud achievement of Indian industry. But photographs are very few. And nearly all those you will find on the internet are many years old. It is a...

www.navalnews.com

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

A short report on India’s Arihant class SSBN. A very secretive program, even more than other SSBN’s from around the world. Two boats so far with a third well underway.

5 Years Of Submarine Secrecy: India's Unique Arihant Class Is Still In Hiding - Naval News

5 years after she was commissioned in 2016, the Indian Navy’s INS Arihant remains something of an enigma. Her existence is no secret, in fact it is a proud achievement of Indian industry. But photographs are very few. And nearly all those you will find on the internet are many years old. It is a...

www.navalnews.com

My goodness... why are you a couple of seconds faster!?

:-D

 

[John Fedup]

My goodness... why are you a couple of seconds faster!?

:-D

Morning coffee launching me off I guess.

 

[ngatimozart]

Morning coffee launching me off I guess.

Triple shot expresso?

 

[Feanor]

There's unconfirmed info that India is done with the Nerpa project 971 nuclear attack sub, and the sub is on its way to Vladivostok. The 10 year rental period does expire this year and would require extension. Prior to this there was information that India wanted to a rent a Yasen class instead. There was also info, prior to this that India agreed to rent another project 971 instead of the Nerpa, possibly because the Nerpa needs overhauls and repairs, and Russian yards are notoriously slow at those.

It will be interesting. If they are getting another sub, which 971 or 885? Or perhaps they've opted out of renting Russian nukes entirely. The submarine mentioned as a possible rental for India is the Samara but information about this only appeared in 2019, and the repair and overhaul timeframe was cited as 72 months, meaning that if India wants to avoid a gap in capability, they should extend the service of the Nerpa by at least 5 years. Of course they had a much longer gap between their first and second rentals so perhaps they're willing to wait.

Атомная подводная лодка INS Chakra ВМС Индии направляется во Владивосток

Атомная подводная лодка INS Chakra (бывш. Нерпа) проекта 971И ВМС Индии сейчас проходит Малаккский пролив. Пункт назначения - Владивосток. Ранее коллегиbmpd сообщали о том, что Индия будто бы не продлила соглашение об аренде российской атомной многоцелевой подводной лодки К-152…

dambiev.livejournal.com

Подписано соглашение о передаче Индии в аренду еще одной атомной подводной лодки проекта 971

Как сообщило индийское издание The Print со ссылкой на источники в министерстве обороны Индии, 7 марта 2019 года в Нью-Дели было подписано российско-индийское соглашение о передаче Индии в долгосрочную аренду еще одной атомной многоцелевой подводной лодки проекта 971 из наличия ВМФ…

bmpd.livejournal.com

Индия не может без "Ясеня"

Москва и Дели обсуждают аренду второй АПЛ

www.kommersant.ru

Индия подписала контракт о аренде российской атомной подводной лодки

phototass4.cdnvideo.ruИндия подписала с Россией договор о лизинге атомной подводной лодки. Подводный корабль «Самара» проекта 971 «Щука- Б» (класс «Акула» по классификации НАТО) будет передан индийским ВМС в 2025 году...

sdelanounas.ru

 

[John Fedup]

Is there any joint nuclear sub development going on between India and Russia? The stealth jet development didn’t seem to work out but submarines are possibly a better collaboration opportunity.

 

[ngatimozart]

Is there any joint nuclear sub development going on between India and Russia? The stealth jet development didn’t seem to work out but submarines are possibly a better collaboration opportunity.

The Indians are building their own SSBNs so there is no reason why they eventually can't build their own SSNs as well. I know it doesn't answer your question, but it is a possibility.

 

[OPSSG]

Indian Naval Air Updates —Part 1

1. India’s procurement of 24 MH-60R Seahawks was cleared by the defence ministry on 25 Aug 2018. On 2 Apr 2019 the Pentagon notified the US Congress about the potential sale “for an estimated cost of US$2.6 billion.” Alongside the FMS purchase of 24 MH-60R Seahawks, tendering is under way for another 99 Seahawks that are proposed to be built in India through the Strategic Partner route.

2. Successive Indian Navy chiefs have identified the shortage of multi-role helicopters (MRHs) as one of the navy’s biggest operational deficits. The US Navy is the main operator of the MH-60R with 289 units in its fleet. In 2019, the U.S. State Department approved similar MH-60R deals for South Korea and Greece.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1416260064306892803

3. The Indian Navy was handed over its first two MH-60R Seahawk MRHs in a ceremony held at San Diego, and in the process greatly increasing the ASW capability of the Indian Navy.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1387737303758491649

4. Concurrently, the Indian Navy also commissioned a second naval air squadron equipped with the indigenously designed and built Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Mk III in a ceremony held on 7 Jun 2021. The 5.5-ton ALH Mk IIIs will supplement, and eventually replace, the Indian Navy's and coast guard's depleting fleets of Chetak (Aérospatiale Alouette III) light utility helicopters that entered service from 1969 and are reaching the end of their total technical life. Presently, the Indian Navy also makes do with barely 10 Seaking Mark 42B/C helicopters that are decades old. As the Seakings retired, helicopter hangars on board the navy’s aircraft carriers, destroyers and frigates emptied, severely reducing the Indian navy’s combat capability.

 

[OPSSG]

Indian Naval Air Updates —Part 2

5. Boeing is continuing to expand the Indian Navy’s long-range maritime reconnaissance anti-submarine warfare capabilities with the delivery of the country’s 10th P-8I Poseidon in July 2021. From near zero in 2008, India-US defence trade touched US$20 billion in 2020, helped along by major policy upgrades.

6. The US designating India as a Major Defence Partner (in 2016) and then granting it same access to defence technology as NATO allies and Australia, Japan and South Korea under Strategic Trade Authorization (STA) in 2018 has enhanced ties. There are 37 US allies or countries are covered by the STA license exception under 740.20(c)(1) group one; and 8 countries are covered by the STA license exception under 740.20(c)(2)group two.

7. When paired with the 12 + 6 Indian P-8Is fleet (when the delivery is complete, in years to come), we can honestly say that the Indian Navy is about to get serious on conducting ASW to hunt for PLA(N) and Pakistani submarines. India’s Cabinet Committee on Security approved the acquisition of 8 Boeing P-8Is in 2009, 4 additional Boeing P-8Is in mid-2016 and a possible order of 6 more, through a DSCA notification to the US Congress in May 2021. But I caution to state that a DSCA notification does not mean a contract for the last 6 Boeing P-8Is is concluded.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

An important moment for the Indian Navy and Indian defence industry.

Most of the construction activities on Vikrant have been completed and the ship has entered the trials phase. Readiness of ship’s Propulsion and Power Generation equipment / systems was tested in harbour as part of Basin Trials in Nov 20. The latest reports indicate that India’s first locally made aircraft carrier will be commissioned in 2021.

India’s New Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant Starts Sea Trials - Naval News

India's indigenous aircraft carrier 1 (IAC 1) INS Vikrant sails for her maiden sea trials today. She will be India’s second aircraft carrier joining the Russian built INS Vikramaditya.

www.navalnews.com

 

[Ananda]

Add the video of when the carrier leaving the port for first sea trial run. After 8 years from launching, this indigenous carrier project become some controversy in India due to prolong finishing after launch. Some in Indian media and opposition Political circles, questioning the Government management. Especially during that time, China already finishing two carriers and building the third.

However considering this is first India indigenous carrier, and their prolong program on Vikramaditya in Russia. I guess 8 years finishing after launching still can be acceptable, some what.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1422896240673579009

Another video from Indian Twitter sources.

 

[John Fedup]

Came across this article on India’s planned SSK requirement with AIP. Looks like the tender requirements are likely to see the German vendor following the Swedish vendor out the door. One would think India should have learned a lesson by now that expecting 60% local content and construction in India while holding the foreign partner responsible for any C-F won’t fly. The 136 Rafale procurement fell apart for this very reason.

Germany likely to opt out of Navy's submarine project, South Korean company may be only vendor - The Economic Times

The Navy’s plan to build six conventional submarines in India for an estimated Rs 43,000 crore is heading for troubled waters, with one of the prime foreign tec

m.economictimes.com

 

[swerve]

Especially when the local partners have a poor reputation for reliability. I remember it being reported that spares packages & parts kits for assembly of Hawk trainers had been mixed by the Indian assembler, & the supplier's staff (who were supposed to be ensuring contract compliance & to give technical assistance) had been refused entry to the assembly plant since they'd reported the mixing of parts packages.

I wouldn't want to be held liable for the actions of a partner who behaved like that.