India approves indigenous construction of 6 submarines for Rs 40,000 crore

In a major decision, the defence acquisition council  (DAC) on Thursday approved indigenous construction of 6 submarines for the Indian Navy, the total cost of which is of Rs 40,000 crore.

The project comes under Defence Ministry’s ‘strategic partnership’ (SP) model that aims at providing a significant fillip to the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme. This is the 2nd such project under the SP model.SP model calls for indigenous manufacturing of major defence platforms by an Indian strategic partner who will collaborate with foreign OEM to set up production faculty in the country.

According to defence ministry’s release “model has a long term vision of promoting India as a manufacturing hub for defence equipment through the transfer of niche technologies and higher indigenous content thereby enhancing self-sufficiency for meeting the future requirements of the armed forces.”

The 1st project under SP model was indigenous production of 111 naval utility helicopters in August 2018. Construction of 6 submarines, defence ministry has said, “is expected to provide a major boost to the existing submarine design and manufacturing ecosystem in India through the transfer of design and equipment technology as well as necessary skill set.”