INS Vela To Get Commissioned Soon
INS VELA
The submarine would soon be commissioned into the Indian Navy and enhance its capabilities
INS VELA, the fourth Scorpene submarine of Project – 75, has been handed over to the Indian Navy for commissioning. This brings the strength of the Submarine force to 16x conventional submarines and 3x nuclear powered SSBNs.
The Project – 75 planned for the construction of six submarines of Scorpene design. Four of these submarines have been constructed and handed over to the Navy by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) Mumbai, under collaboration with Naval Group, France. These are — KALVARI, KHANDERI, KARANJ and now VELA.
Named VELA as per the second batch of Russian origin foxtrot the submarine was launched on 06 May 19, and has completed all major harbour and sea trials including weapon and sensor trials despite COVID restrictions. The submarine would soon be commissioned into the Indian Navy and enhance the Indian Navies capability.
The `Acceptance Document’ was signed by Vice Admiral Narayan Prasad, Chairman and Managing Director MDL and Rear Admiral K P Arvindan, Chief Staff Officer (Tech), Western Naval Command in the presence of MDL Directors and Navy personnel at MDL, the release said.
The fifth submarine VAGIR was launched on November 12, 2020, and has started her harbour trials, MDL said. It is expected to go for the maiden surface sortie in December whilst the sixth submarine VAGLI is presently in the advanced stage of outfitting, it added.
Submarine construction is an intricate activity as the difficulty is compounded when all equipment are required to be miniaturised and are subject to stringent quality requirements. Construction of these submarines in an Indian yard is yet another step towards ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.
India needs to go for next phase of submarine construction where in 30 x Submarine fitted with AIP should be made available by 2035. This means two submarine lines at MDL must start churning out submarine from 2026 at the rate of 2 per years. This also implies that within this period 10 x submarine have to be manufactured by private shipyard in India.
In addition to the above 6 x SSGN should be joining the Navy from Vizag based construction line and in addition at least 3 x SSGN from Russia/ France through lease or outright purchase. Of course there will be additional 6x SSBNs from Vizag during this period.
Thus by 2035, the Submarine arm should be comprising 36 x Diesel electric submarine, 9 x SSGNs and 9 x SSBNs.
