Pakis dream of submarine superiority with trash Chinese subs over Indian Navy
The Paki Navy just about matches the Indian Coast Guard in its capability. However now and then it does dream of taking on the Indian Navy. This time the dream rests on the eight tin cans — these are the submarines being built by China for the Pakis.
In 2015, Pakistan had signed an agreement with China. Under this agreement, China will build eight Yuan class submarines for the Pakistan Navy. These submarines will be conventional Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) which cost five billion dollars.
Four of these submarines are areing built in China while four are being built at the Karachi Shipyard. The pace at which this program is going on, it is believed that the Pakistan Navy will get the first Chinese built submarine by the end of 2023.
Pakistan has already started to dream that after it gets all eight submarines by 2030 then the Pakistan Navy will be far ahead of India as far as the capabilities of fighting underwater warfare is concerned.
These 2300 ton( submerged ) submarines have top speed of 18 knots and test depth of 250 m but are primarily meant for shallow Costal waters of the Arabian Sea. Their armament and other sensors may be comparable to Russian kilo class submarines but are not as quiet.
Now about the Paki dream. They forget that the Indian Navy destroyed the PNS Ghazi of the Pakistani Navy in 1971, without even the help of a submarine, even though at that time India was indeed quite far behind in Submarine warfare.
Now India is way ahead, in the top league of anti submarine warfare with 12x P 8Is LRMR aircrafts, 24x Dornier 228s SRMR aircrafts and the latest 24x MHR 60 anti submarine helicopters, all of which will be operational by 2025.
Even additional 6xP8Is should be there by 2027. In addition 16x next generation anti submarine missile Corvettes, especially designed for shallow waters are in advanced stages of construction at Cochin Shipyard and Garden Reach. All of them will be delivered well before 2028.
So what to talk about the Paki Navy, even the Chinese PLAN submarines will not dare to challenge the Indian Navy, within the Indian Ocean. The Kargil war had been shortened because the Paki Navy dared not venture out from its ports and Pakistan became aware of an undeclared blockade.
December 8 was Indian Submarine Day and on this occasion, several Indian Navy veterans talked about this ‘silent killer’. These veterans expressed concern over how the state of the Indian Navy’s submarine fleet was becoming a matter of concern because of yet to start Project 75 I.
On December 20, the Indian Navy received the fifth submarine of the Scorpion class, named Wazir. This submarine has been prepared by Mumbai-based Manjhgaon Dock Shipbuilders and was co-developed with France. The submarine is part of Project-75 of the Indian Navy. Under this project, six Scorpion submarines are to be received by the Indian Navy. The trial of the sixth submarine is going on.
India currently has 16 conventional submarines and two nuclear SSBN submarine. But out of this fleet 11 submarines are nearly three decades old. However, the INS Kalvari class submarines, the recent addition to the Indian Navy’s submarine strength, has plugged this weakness to some extent.
INS Arihant was India’s first indigenous nuclear submarine that was inducted in the Indian Navy to give India an assured second strike capability.Now it has INS Arighat to give company. In April 2022, the INS Arihant test fired the nuclear capable ballistic missile K-4. The missile is named after former President APJ Abdul Kalam and has a range of 5000km. INS Arihant is equipped with four vertical launch tubes which can carry 12 K-15 missiles ( 1500km range ) or four larger K-4 missiles. These two indigenous submarine completes India’s nuclear triad – capability of firing nuclear weapons from land, air and sea.
Five more SSBNs should also be joining in next few years. By that time all of them will be armed with submarine launched nuclear armed ICBMs to strike any adversary in any part of this planet.
The project 75A is already gathering construction speed and by 2030 first of the six nuclear powered SSGNs should be there to join and patrol the Indian Ocean and also the Indo Pacific along with at least one but likely two Russian made Akula3 submarines named INS Chakra 3 and Chakra 4.
The Indian Navy needs ideally 48 conventional submarines, 24 nuclear powered SSGNs and 12 nuclear armed SSBNs. However for the period up to 2040 a minimum of 32 conventional submarines, 12 of SSGNs and 9 of SSBNs will be fine. This is the plan that was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security formed after the 1999 Kargil war.
Under the Navy plan, the Indian Navy was to get 12 new diesel submarines by 2012 and 12 more by 2030. Therefore their is certainly a worrying delay in this project which needs to be hastened for ensuring world peace.
Therefore the capability of the Pakistan Navy is no where near the Indian Navy. Even Chinese PLAN stands much inferior to Indian Navy within the Indian Ocean Region and it knows this quite well.
