Defence News
Indian Nuclear Attack Submarines : Will it be ” East meets West”?
By the end of this year, India’s Classified Black Project to develop Six Nuclear Powered Attack Submarines will go official but it will be years before we hear anything credible report coming out in public, officially in the media but years of experience in development of Arihant class nuclear powered Ballistic missile submarines will no doubt come handy and technological partners in the project will make sure project is fast-tracked and don’t take ages to become operationalises .
French shipbuilder, DCNS has been very keen on becoming India’s Non-Nuclear Technology partner in India’s Nuclear Powered Attack Submarine project in lieu for further Submarine orders under Project-75I under which India plans to procure Six Conventional Attack Submarines.
Indian Navy Chief along with India’s Top Submariners and key decision makers on their recent visit to DCNS Shipyards in France were given exclusive access to French Barracuda-class nuclear attack submarine which is yet to become operational.
French reportedly is very keen on selling their Super quiet Pump jet propulsion technology to India which is also used on the Barracuda-class nuclear attack submarine and even on Triomphant class of ballistic missile submarines of the French Navy.
Pump jet propulsion is seen as next-generation propulsion technology which replaces obsolete Propeller technology. Propeller technology uses a mechanical drive shaft but Pump jet propulsion uses a rim-driven system electrical motor inside the pump-jet shroud to create thrust but Pump jets are also heavier, expensive to procure and expensive to maintain/repairs yet are much quieter than Propeller technology which is essential for a nuclear attack submarines.
Pump-jet propulsion when mated to a Nuclear reactor gives access to unparalleled higher silent speed way more then conventional Propellers could ever achieve, that is one of the key reasons why Western Naval forces uses Pump-jet propulsion on their nuclear attack submarines and similar pump-jet propulsion is equipped on best of the Best Nuclear attack submarines like UK’s Astute-class submarine, United States’s Virginia-class submarine .
India from 2011 has been operating INS Chakra an Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine from Russia on a 10-year-old lease.
This is the Second instance when India acquired a Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine on lease and is also very keen on acquiring another submarine of similar class once lease of current INS Chakra expires in 2021.
For years now INS Chakra has been training ground to train future Submariners to handle a nuclear-powered vessel in India but it also will be used as a base template to develop India’s indigenous nuclear-powered attack submarines in the future. Russians still rely on conventional
Propellers for their nuclear-powered attack submarines and even their latest Yasen-class submarine nuclear-powered attack submarines carry Propeller technology adopted from Akula and Oscar-class submarines.
Thier is no doubt that any Indian developed nuclear-powered attack submarine will take heavy inspiration from Russian design philosophy and technology but India is keen on using Hull level expertise acquired while developing Scorpene Class submarines in India for the proposed nuclear-powered attack submarines.
India is also very keen to adopt best of Western submarines technology so that it can be mated to best of what Russia could offer to Indian technology to develop a nuclear-powered attack submarine which can be counted among the best.
Hybrid of East and West in a nuclear-powered attack submarine will be unparalleled and a fine balance between developmental cost and advancement in technology.
