THE AGEING SHARKS

THE INDIAN NAVY'S VINTAGE SUBMARINE FLEET WILL BE AT A DISADVANTAGE AGAINST EVEN PAKISTAN IN A DECADE. THE GOVERNMENT MUST RETHINK ITS UNDERWATER STRATEGY

- Pradip R. Sagar

In the summer of 1973, Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh (retd), then a young lieutenant, was part of the commissioning crew of INS Vela, a Foxtrot-class submarine. Mary Shelvankar, the Scottish wife of India's then-ambassador to Moscow, K.S. Shelvankar, performed the commissioning rituals on August 31 in Riga, the capital of Latvia, which was part of the then Soviet Union. The day became significant because, with this, India surpassed arch-rival Pakistan's navy in submarine strength. After trials in the Baltic Sea, INS Vela sailed for India. But by then, the Egypt-Israel Yom Kippur war had started. So, instead of coming through the Suez Canal, the crew had to go around Africa-the 45day journey became 87 days long.

In the 1965 war, Pakistan had a submarine, PNS Ghazi, while India had none. By the 1971 war, both India and Pakistan had four submarines each. By 1973, India had surpassed Pakistan by getting four more subs from Russia. But now, after nearly five decades, India's edge in underwater capabilities could end as the Pakistan navy may have a younger, better submarine fleet than India by 2030. Indeed, with much of our fleet on its last legs, Pakistan may even have more subs in the seas by then. The country has three Agosta 90-B submarines operational now, and has a $5 billion contract with China (signed in 2015) for eight Yuan-class (Type 039-A) conventional air-independent propulsion (AIP)-capable submarines, the first of which will be delivered in 2023.

The Indian Navy's fleet of attack submarines has dwindled from a bristling 21 in the 1980s to just 16 now-15 conventional diesel-electric submarines (7 kilo class, 4 HDW (German), 4 Scorpene class) and one nuclear-powered SSBN (ballistic missile submarine), the INS Arihant. The bad news is that at least half of the old boats are undergoing mid-life upgrades. Which means India has just seven submarines that are battle-ready at any given time.