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12-10-2024
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI: India approved on Wednesday plans to construct two of a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarines, two defence officials said, in a project estimated to cost about 450 billion rupees ($5.4 billion).
As India scrambles to modernize its military in the face of China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean region, it is focusing on boosting naval capabilities, and improving domestic weapons-making capacity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet gave the go-ahead for the first two submarines of a new class of six the Indian Navy plans to make, the officials added, speaking on condition of anonymity, but stopped short of providing delivery dates.
China, the world’s largest naval force, with more than 370 ships, has been a security concern for India since ties nosedived in 2020 after 24 troops died in clashes along their Himalayan frontier.
Faster, quieter and capable of longer underwater stays than conventional diesel-powered craft, which makes them more difficult to detect, nuclear-powered attack submarines rank among the most potent naval weapons in the world.
Only a handful of nations make them now, such as China, France, Russia and the United States.
India, which leased two nuclear-powered attack submarines from Russia in the past but since returned them, has been in talks with it to lease another.
The new submarines will be built at the government’s shipbuilding centre in India’s southern port of Visakhapatnam.
Construction major Larsen and Toubro, opens new tab is also expected to join the project, one of the sources added.
They will be different from the Arihant-class nuclear-powered submarines India is now building, capable of launching nuclear weapons, the second of which was commissioned in August.
In November, India said its first domestically built nuclear-powered submarine had recently completed a “deterrence patrol”, giving it the capability to fire nuclear weapons from land, air and sea in the event of any “misadventure” by enemies.
With nuclear-armed China to its north and nuclear-armed Pakistan to its west both of which India has fought wars with India’s nationalist Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, said the INS Arihant was a “fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail”.
He did not elaborate.
“Amid an increase in the number of nuclear weapons in our surroundings, a credible nuclear deterrence is extremely important for our country’s security,” he told the crew of the submarine in a speech televised nationwide.
“Arihant is an open warning for the country’s enemies, for the foes of peace: don’t try any misadventure against India.”
Though India’s relations with China are warming, particularly in the area of trade, ties with Pakistan have nosedived under Modi, who has adopted a more assertive strategy towards the arch rival.
Modi said a successful month-long patrol by Arihant, which was commissioned in 2016, had completed India’s goal of having the capacity to deliver nuclear warheads with aircraft, missiles and submarines, 20 years after conducting its last nuclear tests. Nuclear power is the fifth-largest source of electricity in India after coal, gas, hydroelectricity and wind power. As of November 2020, India has 23 nuclear reactors in operation in 8 nuclear power plants, with a total installed capacity of 7,380 MW.
