Project-75 Scorpene Submarines (Kalvari Class)

sUBMARINES REMAIN A KEy element of modern maritime warfare in strategic & operational role as they can play a major role in all the three aspects of maritime warfare i.e. sea control, sea denial and maritime power projection. The indian navy intends to use the submarines for area surveillance, intelligence gathering, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and minelaying operations.

in 2005, india and France signed a $3.5 billion-contract for building six Scorpene-class ( now Kalvari Class) submarines in india under licence from dCns (now called naval Group) of France and executed by mazagon dock shipbuilders for india.

Things have speeded up in the last seven years and this year, the sixth and final submarine was handed over to the indian navy. earlier, the submarines delivered and commissioned as follows:

●● INS Kalvari being launched on October 27, 2015, and commissioned on december 14, 2017.

●● INS Khanderi was launched on January 12, 2017, and commissioned on september 28, 2019.

●● INS Karanj was launched on January 31, 2018, and commissioned on march 10, 2021.

●● ins Vela was launched on may 6, 2019, and commissioned on november 25, 2021.

●●ins Vagir was launched on november 12, 2020, and sea trials have commenced since February 2022.

●●ins Vagsheer was handed over to the indian navy on april 20, 2022, will undergo sea trials and is expected to join the naval fleet by March 2024. Kalvari Class of submarines are modern state-of-the-art conventional submarines which have given an edge to the Indian Navy in the Indo-Pacific & QUAD.

Specifications

●● Scorpene has a complement of 31 (including 6 officers).

●● dimensions (feet/metres) are 217.8 x 20.3 x 19 (66.4 x 6.2 x 5.8). Scorpene can reach top speed of 20 knots when submerged and a top speed of 12 knots when it surfaces.

●● It has four MTU 16V 396 SE84 diesel engines and a silent permanently magnetised propulsion motor.

●●The hull, fin and hydroplanes are designed for minimum underwater resistance and all equipment inside the pressure hull is mounted on shock-absorbing cradles for enhanced stealth.

Features

●● scorpene is a diesel attack submarine, designed to perform sea denial as well as access denial warfare against the adversary.

●● it can do offensive operations across the speding anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, mine laying and area surveillance.

●● It is enabled with a C303 anti-torpedo counter measure system.

●● it can carry up to 18 torpedoes or exocet anti-ship missiles, or 30 mines in place of torpedoes.

●● its superior stealth features include advanced acoustic absorption techniques, low radiated noise levels, hydro-dynamically optimised shape.

●● it has the ability to launch a crippling attack using precision guided weapons, underwater or on surface.