Smoke detected on Indian Navy submarine INS Sindhuratna off Mumbai coast.

                                  INS Sindhuratna ( File Pic.)

 Mumbai:  An Indian Navy submarine is headed back to the Mumbai shore after it was forced to surface when smoke was detected on board. Reports said four or five sailors fell unconscious from suffocation and have been airlifted to a Mumbai hospital.

The INS Sindhuratna was being sea tested after a refit, about 40 to 50 km off the Mumbai coast when the smoke was detected. The senior-most submarine officer of the Western Naval Command was on board.

The submarine was carrying no weapons or ammunition. Since it was still in testing mode, it had not been placed under operational command yet. 

In August last year, another Navy submarine, the INS Sindhurakshak, sank in the Mumbai harbour after an explosion on board, killing 18 sailors.

2nd Nuclear Submarine Lease likely to highlight in Indo-Russian Summit

At least half a dozen bilateral agreements, including a big ticket deal on the lease of a nuclear submarine are expected to be signed at the 14th Indo-Russian annual summit in Moscow on October 21, key officials involved in the negotiations (which are still going on) said.

India has been looking to take a second nuclear submarine on lease from Russia and talks are believed to have progressed well. The two sides are keeping budget-level secrecy on this subject. The issue is likely to dominate discussions between Singh and Putin during a restricted meeting where the two principals meet with select aides.


Normally, sensitive subjects like nuclear submarines are not announced formally. It is yet to be seen whether the subject will find a mention in the Joint Statement to be released after the visit but a broad framework on defence and scientific cooperation is likely to be unveiled after the talks.

The only nuclear submarine with the Indian Navy currently, INS Chakra, has also been taken on lease from Russia. The boat joined active service in the Indian Navy in April 2012. The ten-year lease has cost India almost a billion dollars.

The Indian Navy personnel are quite satisfied with the leased nuclear submarine as the 80-personnel capacity boat can remain under water as long as human endurance allows. Another operational advantage of the boat is that its noise level is virtually zero which enhances its stealth qualities.

The second nuclear submarine lease is likely to cost considerably more. Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh is scheduled to hold a press conference on Manmohan Singh’s visit to Russia and China during which she would inevitably be asked questions about the second nuclear submarine lease plans.


Defence ties ::
Government-to-government route, comparable to the American Foreign Military Supplies (FMS) programme, is being actively considered to repair the strains in Indo-Russian defence relations from the Russian viewpoint.

Russia has been complaining to India for losing out on several defence deals over the past two years largely because of India’s radically changed Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) which puts greater emphasis on indigenization.

But despite some recent setbacks, Russia still tops the list of foreign defence suppliers, having secured orders worth $16 billion in orders during the three-year period of April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2013. This amounts to almost 40 percent of the Indian defence imports in this period which totaled $38 billion. Currently Russian arms factories are working on cumulative Indian orders worth $20 billion, enough to keep them busy for years.


Energy, trade, investment issues ::
The October 21 summit will be dominated by energy, trade and investment issues.

On the energy front, Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant’s 3rd and 4th units and Indian concerns about ONGC’s loss-making investment in Imperial Energy which is engaged in mineral extraction in western Siberia would be the main talking points at the summit, officials said.

It is a work in progress on the tricky issue of KNPP 3 and 4 and no agreements are likely to be signed during the summit. The matter is currently at the technical talk’s stage.

The two sides’ prime focus will be on giving a much-needed impetus to the bilateral trade, currently at a below-par $11 billion with a target of taking it to $20 billion by 2015. The leaders will be tightening bolts and screws of a mechanism of deepening cooperation in multiple and diverse sectors such as information technology, fertilizers, infrastructure and aviation.

The two leaders are likely to discuss the idea of Russians producing passenger aircraft SSJ-100 and Irkut in India for India to keep the cost of production considerably lower. Again, an agreement is unlikely to be signed during the summit in this context because the matter is being discussed by technical experts from the two sides.

Fertilizer sector is another highly important area that promises rich returns as Russia is a leading producer and India a major importer of the commodity. The two sides are likely to agree to intensify their cooperation in this area which can give billions of dollars to Russia in the long run.

Source: INDRUS

First Scorpene submarine to be delivered in 2014

        After hitting rough waters for several years with bribery allegations, the first of the six Scorpene submarines, ordered by the Indian Navy as part of technology transfer from France, is to be delivered in 2014, French ambassador Francois Richier said on Saturday. The rest five submarines are to be delivered every year.
         "The first submarine would be ready by 2014, heralding an important and strategic tie-up between both the nations on the defence front", said Richier told mediapersons on board French naval destroyer FNS Montcalm, anchored at Goa's Mormugao harbour for a naval exercise. 'Project-75' is under way at Mazagon Docks Ltd (MDL) in cooperation with French company DCNS.
          "It is a full transfer of technology, something we don't do with everybody. Defence component of India-French relations is very important to us," said Richier. 
            The Scorpene deal has been under a cloud of controversy with the government conducting an inquiry into financial irregularities committed by a former director in-charge of the whopping Rs 23,562-crore project, which has been dogged by huge time and cost overruns. Defence minister AK Antony told the Lok Sabha last month that a complaint was received alleging financial irregularities against the then director in-charge of the Scorpene submarine project in a defence shipyard (MDL) and the complaint is under inquiry.

Indian Navy submarine force to be weakest by 2015

      The Indian Navy's submarine force levels will be lowest in the history by 2015 as per a confidential defence ministry report.
    While China is scaling up its underwater capabilities by introduction of more submarines, the Indian Navy is speculated to have merely six or seven submarines in 2015 including the indigenous nuclear powered, nuclear armed ballistic missile submarine, INS Arihant as it will start phasing out the the Russian Kilo class and German HDW Type 209 class submarines.
   The Indian Navy currently operates 14 submarines in the above submarine classes and also a single nuclear powered attack submarine leased from Russia, INS Chakra while China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) operates close to 45 submarines including nuclear powered attack and ballistic missile submarines. It also has plans to construct 14 Yuan class diesel electric submarines probably with Air Independent Propulsion (AIP).
     On the other hand, the six French Scorpene submarines (Project 75) currently under construction in Marzagon Dock limited at a cost of 23,562 crores will not be launched until 2016-17.