MDL bats for bigger Scorpene submarines

JAISWAL

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The Hindu : News / National : MDL bats for bigger Scorpene submarines
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Unfazed by mounting criticism over time and
cost overruns in building six Scorpene
submarines for the Navy under the beleaguered
Project 75, Defence shipyard Mazagaon Dock
Limited (MDL) would rather have the Navy go in
for bigger Scorpenes under the proposed Project
75-I.
"The decision [to choose the type of submarine]
is left to the powers-that-be in Delhi, based on
their requirements and needs. I cannot really
comment on that. But as a shipbuilder, I think we
would be tremendously leveraging our skills and
expertise attained over a period of four to five
years [of building the Scorpenes] if we carry on
with a similar kind of submarine. It will certainly
make us happy," Vice-Admiral (retd.) H.S. Malhi,
Chairman and Managing Director of MDL told The
Hindu at a recent interaction in Mumbai.
"The money shelled out for transfer of
technology [ToT] for the Scorpenes currently
under construction would be well worth it if you
have similar submarines, the Scorpene Plus.
Then you are leveraging the technology over
many more submarines," Mr. Malhi added.
With depleting submarine force levels staring it in
the face, the Navy had, last year, sought
information on bigger conventional submarines
with improved attack and stealth features, besides
endurance. A request for proposal (RFP) in this
regard is awaited. While two of the P75-I
submarines thus contracted would be built at the
collaborators' yard, the remaining four would be
split between two Indian shipyards.
Mr. Malhi said there was no official
communication on the MDL being handpicked by
the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) to build
three of these. He, however, maintained that the
yard "should be the natural choice, having made
six [Scorpenes]." (Reportedly, another PSU,
Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL),
Visakhapatnam, would get to build one).
It was to MDL's credit, Mr. Malhi said, that it
reconfigured all German equipment and stations
set up for the construction of HDW submarines
in the 1980s and early 1990s to suit the French
Scorpenes. So, if the Navy chose a submarine
type other than Scorpene, the yard would have
to reconfigure the stations all over again as
different submarine types used different grades of
steel and welding technology. This would also
engender teething issues such as difficulty in
absorbing technology.
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............for full article please visit above link
 

plugwater

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No way, Give this order to some private shipyards but that is not going to happen. MoD will stick with MDL even if they take 10+ years to construct a 1500 tonnes submarine.
 

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