Monday, 06 December 2010
Written by Editor
[Stratpost]
Copyright: DCNS The French naval defense major DCNS has offered Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) for the Scorpenes being constructed for the Indian Navy at Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai.
AIP is an auxiliary system for augmenting the ability of submarines to operate without surfacing, by increasing the endurance of the boat’s sub-surface operability. The DCNS system, known as MESMA (Module d’Energie Sous-Marine Autonome), is based on the combustion of stored oxygen and ethanol to augment battery-powered propulsion. Conventional diesel-electric vessels have to surface periodically to charge their batteries, which ultimately propel the boat. An AIP would decrease the Indiscretion Rate, which signifies the required frequency of surfacing to recharge batteries or exchange air, and increase the ability to loiter under water.
Friday, 10 December 2010
Written by Editor
New Delhi – The French shipbuilding major Direction des Constructions Navales or DCNS is eyeing the Indian defence sector for future programmes even as its current collaboration, namely the P-75 to build six Scorpene submarines, is way behind schedule. DCNS has already looked into the request for information on the new P-75I project for six new submarines and is awaiting the request for proposal (RFP) of the same.
While the recent visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy has not affected any new defence deals, the willingness of DCNS to collaborate with India is a reflection of France’s openness towards India. The P-75 project for submarines also provides for transfer of technology. As for the French President, he has assured the supply of advanced defence technologies in a way that contributes to the modernisation of the Indian defence industry.
As per the revised schedule, the first submarine from the P-75 project is expected to be with the Indian Navy by 2015 and the last by 2018.
Friday, 10 December 2010
Written by Editor
New Delhi – While the Indian government has announced that it will be acquiring six new submarines in the Project 75 India (P-75 i) project, the French major DCNS has made an offer to India of a bigger version of its Scorpene conventional diesel-electric (SSK) submarine for a $5 billion. The contract will be for six submarines.
According to DCNS, there will be an extension in the design of the existing Scorpene submarine and new sections in the submarine will include the Air Independent Propulsion (AIP). While DCNS has already responded to the Indian Navy’s Request for Information (RFI) last September, it is now awaiting the Indian Navy to issue its Request for Proposals (RFPs).
DCNS has already got a contract for building six Scorpene submarines at the state-owned Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) under a $4 billion contract signed with France in 2005. This also involves transfer of technology and the first submarine from the P-75 project is expected to be with the Indian Navy by 2015 and the last by 2018.
Wednesday, 05 January 2011
Written by Editor
New Delhi — The state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), with the help of its laboratories, is working on the development of a land-based demonstrator followed by the creation of an Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system that will revolutionise the functions of the current diesel and electric submarines.
The DRDO is going full steam ahead with this project at the Naval Materials Research Laboratory (NMRL) at Ambernath in Maharashtra since the Indian Navy has gladly accepted the proposal by the DRDO. The creation of a fully operational version of an AIP will substantially cut down the time spent by the submarine on snorting or resurfacing for battery recharge. The creation of the AIP will considerably improve the sub-surface performance of the submarines and decrease its susceptibility to attacks.
According to DRDO sources, work on a land-based prototype will be initiated after which they will move to engineering a submarine platform. Sources said that the DRDO has been requested by the Indian Navy to create a fully engineered fuel cell AIP by 2014.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Written by Editor
[Stratpost]
To shore up its depleting submarine fleet, India will this year issue a $11 billion global tender for building six more next generation vessels, navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said here Wednesday.
The new submarine program, known as Project 75I, will be a follow-on to the six Scorpenes that are being built at the Mumbai-based Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) under Project 75.
“The government has already cleared Project 75I. At the moment we are going through the process of Request For Information (RFI). I hope within this year we will be able to push the tender,” Verma said on the sidelines of a National Maritime Foundation seminar on submarines.
French firm DCNS is now executing the Project 75 Scorpene orders in collaboration with MDL at a cost of $4 billion. The Indian Navy operates 14 diesel-electric submarines at present after it decommissioned two Foxtrot class submarines last year. Of the 14 submarines, 10 are Kilo class Soviet-origin vessels and the rest are HDW German-origin vessels.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Written by Editor
NEW DELHI: India is finally getting ready to spend around Rs 10,000 crore on the proposed major expansion of the strategic Karwar naval base in coastal Karnataka. Aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov), Scorpene attack submarines and other frontline warships will be based there in the future.
This comes at a time when India is faced with the likelihood of Chinese warships using the Gwadar deep-sea port in Pakistan, which it helped build in the last decade, in the years ahead.
Apprehensions on this were reinforced recently when Pakistani defence minister Ahmed Mukhtar publicly declared that Islamabad had asked Beijing to build a naval base at Gwadar, which offers direct access to the Gulf region.
Though China was quick to deny it had any interest in establishing a naval base of its own at Gwadar, Beijing's assiduous role in building ports in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka has only served to underline its "string of pearls" strategic construct in the Indian Ocean Region.
Wednesday, 01 February 2012
Written by Editor
NEW DELHI: First, the Americans, Russians and Swedes were ejected out of the hotly-contested race. And now, the Europeans too have been shot down in the dogfight, leaving only the French flying high in the Indian skies.
After an exhaustive technical and commercial evaluation spread over five long years, India on Tuesday selected French jet Rafale over the Eurofighter Typhoon for the gigantic almost $20 billion MMRCA ( medium multi-role combat aircraft) programme to supply 126 fighters to IAF - the largest such "open-tender" military aviation deal in the world.
It will take another four to five months for the contract to be inked after the final round of commercial negotiations between the defence ministry and French aviation major Dassault, and the requisite final nod from the Cabinet Committee on Security.
Under the MMRCA project, the first 18 jets will come in "fly-away condition" from France from mid-2015 onwards, while the rest 108 fighters will later be manufactured in India over six years after a transfer of technology (ToT) to Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL).
Wednesday, 01 September 2010
Written by Editor
New Delhi — In a crucial turnaround of events, the Indian private shipbuilders have been sidelined from India’s submarine programme. This is due to the fact that the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), part of the Indian Defence Ministry, has decided to exclude private participation in the construction of submarines.
According to sources, two submarines that were to be built under the Project-75I by private shipbuilders will now be built at international shipyards. This move has been substantiated by the Indian Navy who feels that a constant delay in indigenous submarine production has caused lot of harm to the Indian Navy’s plans.
The initial plan of the Project 75I involved all the six submarines to be built in India. Three submarines were to be made by state-owned Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL), one by state-owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) and Indian private sector shipyards Larsen & Toubro and Pipavav were to compete for building two submarines.
As of now, the Indian Navy has insisted that the first two submarines must be built abroad.
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Written by Blood Wizard
[Rediff] Slamming the Defence Ministry over the nine-year delay in awarding contract to French firm Thales to build six Scorpene submarines in Mumbai a Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday said the indecisiveness resulted in cost overruns and undue favour to the vendor, besides adversely impacting Navy’s operational preparedness.
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