India has ageing submarine fleet but rudimentary rescue capabilities - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: If the 26-year-old INS Sindhuratna had failed to surface after the battery leak in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday, the lives of all the 94 personnel on board would have been in extreme danger.
With only rudimentary submarine rescue facilities, India would have been forced to run to the US Navy to help the sailors trapped deep under water. Indian Navy's quest for acquiring two deep-submergence rescue vessels (DSRVs) - mini submarines that dive to "mate" with "disabled" submarines to extricate sailors - has been hanging fire for 14 years now.
This yet another instance of 'neta-babu' apathy that stymies critical military requirements, fortunately, did not lead to any greater loss of lives. INS Sindhuratna did manage to surface, though two officers were killed and several others injured in the mishap.
Successive governments have miserably failed to ensure implementation of the 30-year submarine-building plan, approved by Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in July 1999, which envisaged induction of 12 new submarines by 2012 and another 12 by 2030, as reported earlier.
Consequently, Navy is making do with just 13 ageing diesel-electric submarines, almost all over 20 years old, three stuck in life-extension refits and one disabled at present. This makes it all the more crucial to have robust rescue facilities.
In 1997, India had first inked a contract with US Navy for its "global submarine rescue fly-away kit" service, paying an initial $734,443, as an "interim measure". Then, in June 2000, Navy formally initiated the case for two DSRVs, which was "approved in principle" by CCS in November 2002. A single DSRV's cost was around Rs 250 crore then. But the project is yet to be finalized till now, with the tender for it being cancelled at least one. Now, a DSRV would cost at least Rs 400 crore.
Defence ministry sources, however, say the case is in the final stages now, with the offset proposals of a British and a Russian vendor being examined after technical trials. The DSRVs should, hopefully, come by 2017.
Equipped with pressurised chambers, sonars and cameras, a DSRV can rescue around 20 sailors at a time from depths over 600 metres after "mating" with the stricken submarine's hatch. Existing "submarine escape pressurized suits" can be used only for relatively shallow depths, while diving support ship INS Nireekshak can launch "bells" till about 175 metres.
Navy, in fact, is so worried that it revived the earlier agreement with the US in 2004, and then held an exercise in 2012 with US Navy's Undersea Rescue Command flying down a submarine rescue system to Mumbai. The US system is to be transported to India within 72 hours of an emergency.
NEW DELHI: If the 26-year-old INS Sindhuratna had failed to surface after the battery leak in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday, the lives of all the 94 personnel on board would have been in extreme danger.
With only rudimentary submarine rescue facilities, India would have been forced to run to the US Navy to help the sailors trapped deep under water. Indian Navy's quest for acquiring two deep-submergence rescue vessels (DSRVs) - mini submarines that dive to "mate" with "disabled" submarines to extricate sailors - has been hanging fire for 14 years now.
This yet another instance of 'neta-babu' apathy that stymies critical military requirements, fortunately, did not lead to any greater loss of lives. INS Sindhuratna did manage to surface, though two officers were killed and several others injured in the mishap.
Successive governments have miserably failed to ensure implementation of the 30-year submarine-building plan, approved by Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in July 1999, which envisaged induction of 12 new submarines by 2012 and another 12 by 2030, as reported earlier.
Consequently, Navy is making do with just 13 ageing diesel-electric submarines, almost all over 20 years old, three stuck in life-extension refits and one disabled at present. This makes it all the more crucial to have robust rescue facilities.
In 1997, India had first inked a contract with US Navy for its "global submarine rescue fly-away kit" service, paying an initial $734,443, as an "interim measure". Then, in June 2000, Navy formally initiated the case for two DSRVs, which was "approved in principle" by CCS in November 2002. A single DSRV's cost was around Rs 250 crore then. But the project is yet to be finalized till now, with the tender for it being cancelled at least one. Now, a DSRV would cost at least Rs 400 crore.
Defence ministry sources, however, say the case is in the final stages now, with the offset proposals of a British and a Russian vendor being examined after technical trials. The DSRVs should, hopefully, come by 2017.
Equipped with pressurised chambers, sonars and cameras, a DSRV can rescue around 20 sailors at a time from depths over 600 metres after "mating" with the stricken submarine's hatch. Existing "submarine escape pressurized suits" can be used only for relatively shallow depths, while diving support ship INS Nireekshak can launch "bells" till about 175 metres.
Navy, in fact, is so worried that it revived the earlier agreement with the US in 2004, and then held an exercise in 2012 with US Navy's Undersea Rescue Command flying down a submarine rescue system to Mumbai. The US system is to be transported to India within 72 hours of an emergency.
