Not 6, now India to buy only 3 nuclear submarines as cost escalates

New Delhi: The Indian Navy has decided to scale down its plans of procuring nuclear submarines.

According to media reports, the Indian Navy may receive approval to purchase only three nuclear submarines during the initial stage. The original plan, which envisaged the procurement of six submarines in the initial lot has been scrapped by the defence ministry due to high procurement costs.

The defence ministry had approved the Indian Navy’s plans to acquire nuclear submarines in 2016.

It was decided in 2019 that only three submarines will be developed as part of Project-77, which had been launched with the goal of modernising the Indian Navy.

However, things hit a roadblock thereafter as following the initial investment of Rs 100 crores for research and development, for the program did not receive any more funds and the project still awaits clearance.

Meanwhile, France has offered a major nuclear submarine deal to India. As part of the deal, France will become a part of the Indian Navy’s program to develop 6 nuclear submarines and has also offered to share conventional technology from its Barracuda-class nuclear submarine program.

Work on designing an indigenous nuclear submarine design by the Directorate of Naval Design also is going on at the Indian Navy’s Shipbuilding Centre at Visakhapatnam.

A report by Indian Defence Research Wing (IDRW) quoted officials as saying that there were disagreements regarding who will fund the development of a new 190MW pressurized water reactor (PWR) by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

The water reactors will be used to power the Indian Navy’s nuclear submarine program and variant of the same reactor was to be developed for the S5 Class of ballistic missile submarines.

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