Miffed with inordinate delays in the delivery of six Scorpene-class submarines to the Indian Navy under the $3.75-billion P75 program, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has rapped the Defence Ministry in Jan 2018 for not taking stringent action against Naval Group of France (formerly DCNS) and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL).

As a result, in an “unusually strong step”, a high-powered team from the Defence Ministry, led by Joint Secretary and Acquisition Manager (Maritime Systems), Ravi Kant, was sent to Paris to “engage with the vendors and communicate unhappiness of the Indian government on continuing delays on the project”.

Defects Galore, Further Delay

In a recent development, Business Standard reported that the navy has refused to commission the Khanderi into service until all its defects and deficiencies are fully rectified. The navy has refused to commission the Khanderi into service until all its defects and deficiencies are rectified. The P-75 program was approved in 2005 and the first submarine was originally scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2012, and final and the sixth one, by 2016. While the second submarine – Khanderi – was launched in January 2017 and is now undergoing sea trials, the third, Karanj, was launched in Mumbai by former Navy Chief Sunil Lanba, in Jan 2018.

With the navy reporting a host of problems in the second vessel, INS Khanderi, the project has now slipped by at least one more year. The navy has refused to commission the Khanderi into service until all its defects and deficiencies are fully rectified the report further adds.

The most worrying problem the navy discovered during the Khanderi’s sea trials was a killer defect for a submarine: Its engines and propellers were emitting an unduly high level of noise. A submarine’s effectiveness in battle, and its very survival, depends upon it remaining undetected. Enemy sonar detectors — mounted on aircraft, warships and submarines — search relentlessly for sounds emitted by enemy submarines. Once detected, a submarine is easy meat for enemy depth charges or torpedoes said the report.

The Khanderi’s noisiness is not its only problem; the navy has pointed out 35 other defects and has demanded they be rectified before it commissions the vessel. Nor can these problems be addressed quickly, since 29 of them require to be tested when the sea is absolutely calm — or in what is termed “Sea State — 1”. With the monsoon imminent, calm seas are unlikely before September said the report.

Data Breach

Additionally, the program also suffered a “major setback” in the wake of critical data leak of the Indian submarine from Naval Group, an issue which has raised concerns within the Defence Ministry, sources said.

The Naval Group got hit by a massive data leak in 2016, in which sensitive data of the submarines was leaked, which almost jeopardised the Scorpene program in India.

Sources in Naval Group stated that the initial delay is indeed “justifiable”, considering the complexity of the project and the fact that all the submarines were built in India for the first time.

Meanwhile, the request for a follow-on order to built three or more submarines under the P75 program by MDL and Naval Group floated last year has also been stalled by the Defence Ministry.

Our Bureau