With a view to bolster its undersea fighting capabilities, the Indian Navy is poised to open international bids for acquisition and construction of second range of submarines.
"The request for proposals to acquire and build six new range of submarines would be floated shortly," a senior naval official told PTI.
In contention would be the Russians with their 4th generation Amur class submarines armed with vertically launched KLUB-S Missiles and new generation of German HDW submarines with their Air Independent propulsion systems.
The navy has already firmed up a deal with the French warship builders DCN International for construction of six scorpene submarines at Mazagoan docks in Mumbai.
The first of these hunter-killer submarines are expected to roll out by 2011. Naval officials have ruled out equipping any of the six Scorpene submarines with AIP, but Naval Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta has said this capability would be a criteria for the new planned acquisition of six more submarines.
However, the navy remains tightlipped about progress of a proposal to acquire two Russian Akula (Bars) class type 971 Nuclear powered submarines, as part of India's nuclear deterrent based on sea, land and air platforms.
"We definitely would want to have nuclear submarines because of their long undersea endurance, the decision has to be political," naval officials said.
Naval and DRDO scientists have been working on an indigenous nuclear submarines for years, but are cautious to go public on the project labelled Advance Technology Vehicle.
According to sources, India may go in for first sea trials of the submarines by 2009.
Indian and Russian dockyards have been in negotiation for over three years on the acquisition of the Amur class submarines, which are described as successors to the Indian Navy's Kilo class submarines.
Amur's displacement is smaller than Kilo, but its capabilities are stated to be far superior. The Russians have offered to incorporate Rubin-Designed fuell cell AIP in their offer of technology transfer to India. Amur has a displacement of 2000 ton and can attain maximum speed of 21 knots when submerged and 10 knots when surfaced, with a crew of 30 to 34 personnel and an endurance of 45 days.
The Russians had designed the new AIP system to be retrofitted to the Indian Navy Sindhughosh class submarines, some of which are currently being upgraded at St Petersburg. However, the navy opted to go in for vertically launched Klub-S missiles instead. The Amur class submarines also sport anti-ship missiles such as SS-N-15 or the SS-N-16 Misslies and a variety of mines and torpedoes.
The Russians had designed the new generation Amur class submarines for joint induction into the Indian and Russian navies and the subs are expected to cost significantly less than the Kilo class.
However, the Americans could be late entrants for Indian submarine deal and by the time the RFP's are issued in late march or early April, they could also be in the hunt for the Indian deal.
On other acquisition prospects, Naval officials said evaluation was currently underway for inducting eight Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft. "Bids from Boeing and Airbus for the long range spy planes and from Lockheed-Martin offering the P3C Orions and Russian IL-38D for the short range requirment are under study," an official said.
Navy is also planning to buy 16 helicopters with the option of another eight to replace its ageing Seaking Mk 42s and Seaking Mk42s fleet, which are fast approaching the end of their service life. They said Navy was also acquiring Naval versions of the Hawk jet trainers.
