Indian Military

[PIB] Indian Navy's Divers will commence exercises with US Navy divers in a Joint Salvage Exercise off Port Blair in the Andaman Sea. The Salvage Exercises (SALVEX) is being conducted from 05 to 12 Jan 2011. INS Nireekshak, the diving tender of the Indian Navy and USS Safeguard, a specialised Salvage ship are the ships participating in the exercise.

The aim of the exercise is to strengthen capability in niche techniques associated with diving and salvage. In the course of the seven day exercise various specialist salvage techniques will be practiced jointly by the IN and USN divers. Amongst the notable salvage techniques being demonstrated are; operation of underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and side scan SONARs being launched from USS Safeguard, and demonstration of Hot Tap Equipment. Hot Tap Equipment is a special equipment used for removal of oil/fuel from tanks of sunken vessels. During the SALVEX the divers will also hone their salvage skills on a 'Mud Monster', a pontoon specially built and sunk to practice salvage and diving exercises.

[Stratpost]

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has criticized the implementation of the Indian Navy’s plan for enabling its submarines with facilities to couple with Deep Submergence Rescue Vessels (DSRV) and Submarine Rescue Chamber (SRC) of the United States Navy (USN), which has resulted in an expenditure of USD 744,343.

The CAG said in its report that not only were many of the 16 Indian submarines at the end of three-fourths of their life, but that only seven of them were actually operational, with nine undergoing repairs and refit. Two of the submarines, INS (Indian Naval Ship) Vela and INS Vagli, both Foxtrot-class, are due to be decommissioned this year and next year.

The report reads, “75 per cent submarines in the IN fleet have already completed three fourths of their estimated operational life. In fact the IN envisaged the project without clearly identifying deadlines for completing the project. It is pertinent to mention that only 7 out of 16 submarines in IN are operational and 9 submarines are under refit/repair as of October 2009.