On Monday, Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar initiated the launching of the first-of-its-kind indigenously-constructed Scorpene submarine at Mazagon Dockyard Ltd. that is located in Mumbai.
The innovative submarine comes along the lines of the highly ambitious Project 75 which is part of the Indian Navy’s submarine-related programme, undertaken in a co-op effort with its French counterpart. The project is going to feature six vessels of such type that are scheduled to join the fleet one by one over the course of the next several years.
Parker, along with Admiral R.K. Dhowan, who is the Naval Staff Chief, and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were among the officials that attended a puja ceremony marking the vessel’s auspicious undocking.
Expectations are that the submarine will be commissioned and be completely operational by September of 2016.
Currently, India’s Navy has 14 conventional diesel-electric powered submarines at its disposal, including 4 German HDW class vessels and 10 respectively of the Russian Kilo Class.
The Defence Minister is visiting the city in order to review and evaluate Project 75’s progress and most likely will also be getting a status report regarding the B-class stealth destroyers that are being built at MDL as part of Project 15.