Indian Submarine Production Delayed

On July 20th, Indian Minister of Defense A.K. Anthony announced before Parliament that the production and delivery of the Navy's new Scorpene class submarines had been delayed. In an agreement signed in 2005, India acquired the rights to produce half a dozen Scorpenes, a French diesel-electric submarine, under license in India for $3.9 billion. Delivery of the first submarine is now expected to be delayed for two years, from 2012 to 2014.

The delays are crucial due to the advanced age of the existing Indian submarine fleet. The fleet currently consists of 15 diesel-electric submarines, but many of these are thoroughly obsolete. Due to planned retirements, the submarine fleet is supposed to shrink to 9 by 2012, when the first Scorpene was supposed to have been delivered. While the Indian Navy does have a parallel nuclear submarine program that is on track, they were counting heavily on the delivery of the Scorpenes to help them keep pace with the Chinese and Pakistani navies.

The delays with the Scorpene program are due to technical difficulties and sluggishness within India's bloated (and often corrupt) defense bureaucracy. These delays are actually quite typical in India, which has had repeated problems in the past with either developing their own homegrown weapons, or building foreign, advanced weapons under license. Their Arjun tank project had to be abandoned and replaced with the Russian-designed T-90 (now produced in India under license), and their indigenous Drhuv light helicopter is plagued with difficulties, which led the Navy to reject it altogether. Furthermore, India and France have been embroiled in bribery scandals in the past in regards to defense contracting.

The Scorpene is an excellent example of a modern, state-of-the-art diesel electric submarine. It is extremely quiet, and while the exact numbers are a secret, it is believed to have a submerged top speed of over 20 knots and a maximum depth of over 300 m. The submarine carries a crew of 30, and has an endurance of 50 days under normal circumstances. The cruising range is 6,500 miles. It comes armed with six 21-inch torpedo tubes, which can fire either torpedoes or Exocet anti-ship missiles, and can carry 18 torpedoes and mines aboard ship. They are principally an export submarine, as the French Navy does not operate any itself. Scorpenes are currently in service with the Malaysian and Chilean navies, and will enter service with Brazil in 2015.

Sources: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/scorpene.htm; http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsub/articles/20090903.aspx; http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4199352; http://www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2009/07/30/Schedule-slips-for-Indias-Scorpene-subs/UPI-78491248973560/