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Indian Navy's Submarine Arm

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December 08, 2017

Why in news?

The submarine arm of the Indian Navy is celebrating its golden jubilee this year

How has the submarine arm progressed?

  • The submarine arm of the Indian Navy has made notable accomplishments since its inception.
  • This is possibly due to the professionalism of the human resource that lies at its core.
  • India acquired its first submarine, the INS Kalvari, on December 8, 1967.
  • In the intervening decades, the Navy has progressed to designing and indigenously building SSBNs (Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear), the INS Arihant.
  • The Navy has also invested in building conventional boats in India through partnership programmes with foreign suppliers.
  • Notably, India is the first country in the world to move straight to SSBNs, without moving up the scale from conventional boats.
  • The combination of warship building, submarine building and finally the nuclear submarine building has supported a whole range of SME/MSME segments of industry in India.
  • Further the plans for acquisition in place and operationalising them would give India a very credible underwater capability.

What are the shortfalls?

  • DSRV - Submarine arm is one of the most hazardous and high-risk military specialisation.
  • To prepare for any exigency, every submarine-operating navy also invests in a deep submergence rescue vessel (DSRV).
  • Or it supposedly has access to DRSV with navies that have such a capability.
  • Sadly, the Indian Navy does not have a dedicated DSRV even as it enters its 51st year.
  • This void is expected to be filled only later in 2018.
  • Administrative - The long-delayed DSRV acquisition symbolises the systemic incompetence of the Indian military machine.
  • The inability of the Indian higher defence management ecosystem has deprived the Navy’s submarine arm of a critical rescue capability.
  • The complacency in decision-making and ineffectiveness in policy formulation have adversely affected the Indian military profile.
  • Corruption - It was attempted to build two of the most advanced design of the German HDW submarines under the ‘buy and make’ concept.
  • However, it had to be prematurely abandoned due to the infamous HDW scandal and allegations of financial impropriety in the deal.
  • Resultantly, the indigenous submarine programme was set back by three decades.
  • It has taken decades for the procurement procedures to be revised to address issues related to blacklisting and the role of agents.
  • Manpower constraints - Constraints related to recruitment significantly impacts the modernisation and acquisition process.
  • Decommissioning old platforms to compensate for the immediate requirement of new induction has its own challenges.
  • A new platform demands trained manpower for operational needs.
  • Very importantly, it requires a host of administrative, logistics and repair support facilities that are manpower-critical.

What is the way forward?

  • The navy has to strategically overcome the challenge of balancing the short and long term implications on manpower.
  • The core national security interests should be insulated from the vagaries of political/electoral compulsions.
  • Beyond the ceremonial symbolism, the Indian Navy should be given due focus for its substantive policy-related issues.

 

Source: The Hindu

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