The Ministry of Defence on Friday (4 June) at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has given the clearance for Project 75I to construct at least six diesel-electric submarines, equipped with Air Independent Propulsion or API, are to be built in India with a high level of indigenous content.
The Indian Navy will now issue a Request for Proposal to shipbuilders. State-owned Mazagon Docks Limited and Larsen & Toubro have been selected as strategic partners for the project.
The Qualified Foreign Equipment Manufacturers include France’s Naval Group, Russia’s Rubin Design Bureau, German’s Thyssenkrupp, Spain’s Navantia and South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering or DSME.
For a long time, the Indian navy has been trying to integrate the AIP system into its submarines that will give the ability to remain submerged underwater for a long time without surfacing.
The conventional diesel-electric submarine is not equipped with AIP so it has to snorkel frequently to recharge its batteries which power its propellers and also to ventilate the stale air.
During this process, the submarine’s periscope and generator exhaust pipe are above the surface is the most vulnerable period.
Boats have to rise to periscope depth and extend the snort mast above the waterline for every day or two in some cases — so as to ingest air needed for running noisy diesel generators (which require atmospheric air) to charge their batteries that significantly increases the risk of detection.
An AIP system reduces the need for snorkelling allowing it remain underwater for a longer period of time because it enables is it to generate electricity for charging its batteries while completely submerged and in that process making it virtually undetectable to the enemy.
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