15 Mar 2023 14:22:PM
At the height of one of many border standoffs between India and China in the past decade, the Navy’s lone nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN), the INS Chakra, slipped out of Visakhapatnam harbour.
The Chakra dived into the Bay of Bengal and disappeared for over a month, her deployment known to very few in the government. The SSN transited a few thousand nautical miles to the east where she occupied a patrol station and successfully accomplished its mission.
It was a rare deployment of an Indian tactical asset in distant waters, proving that India could mount a naval riposte against China’s landward aggression. The choice of the lone SSN leased from Russia was not surprising. They are among the few platforms capable of operating independently and discretely in enemy waters.
They are bigger and better than conventional submarines in most combat scenarios. Their high-performance nuclear reactors ensure speeds of over 30 knots; they can stay underwater almost indefinitely and attack warships and shore targets with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles.
This is why AUKUS, a military coalition of the US, UK, and Australia– chose SSNs as the fulcrum of their military alliance against China. The historic March 13 announcement by US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego will see the UK and US equip the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) with SSNs. The US operates 50 SSNs, and the UK six. The RAN will first lease the US’ newest Virginia class SSNs and later, with US assistance, design and build a new series, the SSN Aukus class.
The AUKUS is a response to China’s massive naval expansion, the largest since the end of the Cold War. Navy chief Admiral Hari Kumar said at a March 14 lecture that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) had added 148 warships over the last decade, equal to the entire Indian Navy. Yet the Navy presently needs SSNs with which to counter this growing asymmetry.
The Chakra was leased from Russia in 2012 and returned in 2021, a unique bilateral arrangement that began during the days of the Soviet Union.
A second lease, where India paid $3 billion (Rs 21,000 crore) for an in-service Russian SSN, was signed in March 2019. But there are indications this vessel might skip its 2026 deadline. India’s existing fleet of two indigenous nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) is an instrument of nuclear deterrence and unavailable for tactical missions (think of SSBNs as bombers and SSNs as fighter jets).
A Rs 48,000 crore project to build three indigenous SSNs has been pending Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approval since 2019. The SSN project was mooted over two decades ago but shelved because the government prioritised the project to build four Arihant class SSBNs.
In February 2015, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar accorded in-principle approval to build six indigenous SSNs.
It culminated in a 2018 proposal to build six indigenous Project 77 class SSNs over 15 years. The ATV project would deliver the first unit in a decade and the follow-ons in the next five years. In 2019, the government slashed the project to just three units citing high project costs, but as it turns out, even the truncated project still awaits clearance.
India is building up a robust ASW capability by acquiring MH-60R helicopters and P-8 Poseidon aircraft to hunt Chinese submarines in the Indian Ocean in the event of a conflict. The rapidly dwindling Indian conventional submarine arm means it will have fewer units for offensive tasks like interdicting Chinese vessels transiting the Ombai Wetar, Sunda, Lombok, and Malacca Straits into the Indian Ocean. It has diminished capabilities to attack in Chinese waters or post a constant presence near the Straits.
Naval analyst Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande (retired) calls SSNs important parts of sea control, power projection, and sea denial because they are armed with land-attack and long-range anti-ship missiles and near-constant communication linkages.
These formidable capabilities come at a cost. SSNs are the most complex naval platforms to build, and nations have struggled to compact high-performance nuclear reactors into submarine hulls. China was the fifth and last entrant into an exclusive club when it commissioned its first SSN in 1974. It now operates six SSNs with more in the pipeline.
India’s attempts to lease SSNs from other sources like the US have been rebuffed at the military-to-military level over the past decade. It is not known if such acquisitions have been pursued through political channels. US scholars like Ashley J Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace have suggested France provide India with SSN technology instead. It is unclear if this route has been pursued. What is known is that increasingly sophisticated imaging satellites and weapons like China’s ship-killing ballistic missiles have increased the vulnerability of large surface ships like aircraft carriers.
The need for SSNs, which prowl beneath the waters, will only grow. Brazil, for instance, might become the world’s sixth nation to build and operate its own SSN. Its first indigenous SSN, built with French help, will be commissioned in 2032.
The US and UK plan to double their SSN fleets over the next two decades even as they help Australia beef up its attack submarine muscle. Aukus aims at a critical vulnerability in the Chinese Navy ‹their weak antisubmarine warfare capabilities.
Even as China deployed wave after wave of new ships in the first decade-and-a-half of this century, many lacked organic ASW sensors such as towed-array and variable-depth sonar systems, a March 23 article in US Naval Institute Proceedings said, terming them strange oversights for a country constructing a massive surface fleet.
The last country to under-invest in ASW, Imperial Japan during the Second World War, saw its surface fleet, troop ships, and merchant marine ships destroyed by marauding US naval submarines, leading to an economic collapse and the end of its empire. As the ultimate arbiters of sea power, SSNs could thus ensure a stable Indo-Pacific.
AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta, Delhi mayor Shelly Oberoi and deputy mayor Aale Iqbal were present at the emergency meeting.
The grand finale of Femina Miss India 2023 will telecast on May 14, 2023 on Colors.
Invited to bat, captain KL Rahul smashed his first fifty of this IPL season but Punjab Kings roared back with …
RCB bounced back to winning ways with a 23-run win against Delhi Capitals at the Chinnaswamy on Saturday as David …
Young Brook managed to crack the IPL code in style with SRH managing a massive 228/4 in their stipulated 20 …
‘Jogira Sara Ra Ra’ marks the first collaboration between Siddiqui and Sharma.
Global payments gateway Mastercard is the title sponsor of the DGC Open second year in a row. After signing Shiv …
Seattle is not only the first American city to ban caste discrimination, but is the first jurisdiction of any level …