New Delhi — India’s ambitious P-75 project for six Scorpene (rechristenedas Kalvari) class diesel-electric stealth submarines achieved anothermilestone Wednesday with the launch of third submarine – INS-Karanj.
The launch comes as a big relief to the Indian Navy that has been anxiousover the inordinate delay in the project.
The Kalvari class submarines have unmatched stealth capability and canlaunch a crippling attack on enemy vessels with precision-guided weapons.
This gives India an edge over Pakistan in terms of maritime securityespecially in an era of post CPEC where Pakistan Navy would be assuminggreater role in the Indian Ocean to secure Pakistan maritime routes.
“The submarine can attack can be launched with both torpedoes and tubelaunched anti-ship missiles, whilst underwater or on the surface.
The stealth of this potent platform is enhanced by the special attentiongiven to various signatures. These stealth features give it aninvulnerability, unmatched by most submarines,” the Indian Navy said in astatement.
[image: Khanderi, India’s second Scorpene class submarine is seen in theArabian Sea after its launch at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited inMumbai, India]Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said that the launch of Karanj markeda significant departure from the ‘manning and training’ philosophy that wasadopted for the first two submarines and added that from third submarineonwards the Navy would be fully self-reliant in training and certificationprocesses.
INS-Karanj will now undergo rigorous trials and tests, both in the harborand at sea before it is commissioned into the Navy.
The first Kalvari class submarine — INS-Kalvari is already serving theIndian Navy while the second submarine of the class INS-Khandher iscurrently undergoing sea trials is expected to be commissioned into theIndian Navy later this year.
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These boats have an overall length of 66.4 meters, an overall beam of 6.2meters, and a hull draught of 5.8 meters. Equipped with the SM 39 ExocetBlock 2 anti-ship missile, each submarine to have six 533 mm torpedo tubes.
The diesel-electric submarine has a top dived speed of 20 kt and a maximumsurfaced speed of 11 kt.
These vessels are part of the $3.5 billion contract signed in October 2005under India’s Project 75 submarine construction program under which sixsubmarines are being built at MDL in collaboration with French shipbuilderNaval Group (formerly DCNS).
Earlier last week, the Indian government had sent a high-level teamto France to engage with the vendors and to communicate India’s grievancesover the progress in the project that has already been delayed by over fiveyears.