India’s Project 75I tender is aimed at boosting the Indian Navy’s underwater assets, currently at 11 submarines which are 13 short of their sanctioned number. The project is behind by nearly seven years after its was approved by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in October 2014 and is likely to be dispatched later this year.
The Project envision licenced building a submarine by a ship building manufacturer shortlisted from multiple contenders, including DCNS (France), TKMS subsidiary HDW (Germany), Navantia (Spain) and Rosonboronexport (Russia), under a joint venture (JV) with an Indian shipyard.
A committee headed by Vice Admiral A V Subedar has recently completed an audit of seven domestic shipyards – five of them state-owned and two private – to evaluate their submarine-building capability.
It is believed that the committee would submit its report to the MoD in February, after which the selected shipyards, along with IN-approved overseas submarine manufacturers, would be invited for trials around 2016 and a platform shortlisted by 2018. Price negotiations would follow, and IN officials anticipate the first Project 75I submarine being commissioned around 2025-27.
It is believed that the RFI response date, for nine potential local bidders, was deferred to 28 February – from the earlier deadlines of 24 November 2014 and 24 January – as many had been unable to conclude JVs with foreign original equipment manufacturers.
With Japan recently ending its decades old self-imposed arms export embargo, India has invited Japan to compete in the Indian Navy’s (IN’s) long-delayed INR500 billion (USD8.1 billion) Project 75I (India) requirement for six diesel-electric submarines with land attack and air independent propulsion (AIP) capabilities. New Delhi has forwarded “a proposal” to Tokyo to “consider the possibility” of making its latest diesel-electric 4,200-tonne Soryu-class submarines in India.
The Soryu class is also under evaluation by the Royal Australian Navy as a replacement for its six Collins-class boats.
India’s offer to Japan to join Project 75I is being viewed as a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort at forging closer strategic and defence ties with Tokyo and formulating a wider maritime quadrilateral grouping that would include Australia and the United States.
Both India & Japan have unresolved territorial disputes with China that erupt periodically. The United States has also been advocating increased defence co-operation between India and Japan and Australia, which shares their collective concerns regarding China.
India too is also keen to propagate its bilateral strategic partnership with Japan to counter China’s growing military assertiveness in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).Besides India is keen for Japan to participate in its domestic materiel manufacturing programmes as it is seeking technology to boost its defence industrial base. Defence-industrial partnerships of the kind proposed by India will further cement this strategic partnership
Defence & Security Monitor 