Ministry of Defence invites bids for submarine project

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 20

Within six weeks of having okayed a plan to make six next-generation stealth conventional submarines, the Ministry of Defence on Tuesday formally invited bids for the Rs 43,000 crore ($5.8 billion) project.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the apex decision-making body of the MoD headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, had on June 4 okayed to issue a Request for Proposal (RFF). Today, the RFP was issued to selected Indian and global companies.

The RFP was issued to shortlisted strategic partners (SPs) or Indian companies — Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) and Larsen & Tubro (L&T), the MoD said. The MDL is largely owned by the MoD while L&T is a private entity.

The two Indian companies will collaborate with any of the shortlisted foreign submarine makers — Naval Group, France; TKMS, Germany; JSC ROE, Russia; Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co Ltd, South Korea; and Navantia of Spain.

A foreign manufacturer will tie-up with an Indian partner to make these submarines under what is termed as strategic partnership (SP) model. This is the first project on which this new ‘SP model” policy is being tried.

The project envisages indigenous construction of six conventional submarines.

Indian Navy has asked for the vessels to have a fuel-cell based Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) technology, which allows a vessel to dive for 12-15 days, much more than the 4-5 days of endurance of existing subs.

India at present has 17 submarines, including one nuclear powered INS Chakra on a 10-year lease ending March 2022. Meanwhile the US Department of Defence report ‘Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2020’ talks about a growing threat from China.

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