The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved proposals for the procurement of 26 Rafale Marine aircraft from France to boost the Indian Navy’s operational capabilities.
- A meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council was held under the chairmanship of Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh.
- It has granted Acceptance of Necessity for procurement of 26 Rafale Marine aircraft along with associated ancillary equipment, weapons, spares, crew training and logistic support for the Indian Navy from the French government based on an Inter-Governmental Agreement.
- The Defence Acquisition Council also granted approval for the procurement of three additional Scorpene submarines under the Buy (Indian) category which will be constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited.
Scorpene class submarines
- The MDL is building six Scorpene class submarines under the Project-75, as part of a $ 3.75 billion deal signed in October 2005, which allowed for transfer of technology from the French defence firm, Naval Group.
- Of these, five have already been commissioned and the last one will likely be commissioned early next year.
- The fifth submarine under this project, INS Vagir, was commissioned in January this year. The others — INS Kalvari, INS Khanderi, INS Karanj and INS Vela were commissioned between 2017 and 2021.
- In May this year, the sixth submarine Vagsheer began her sea trials.
- Mazagon Dockyards Limited will jointly develop and manufacture Scorpene class submarines with French Naval Group for a third country.
- The Scorpene submarines are conventional attack subs, meaning that they are designed to target and sink adversary naval vessels.
- Capable of launching a large array of torpedoes and missiles, they are also equipped with a range of surveillance and intelligence-gathering mechanisms.
- They are around 220 feet long and have a height of approximately 40 feet. They can reach the top speeds of 11 knots (20 km/h) when surfaced and 20 knots (37 km/h) when submerged.
- Scorpene class submarines use diesel electric propulsion systems, with an endurance – ability to operate independently without refuelling – of approximately 50 days.
- This sort of propulsion system alternates between using diesel (for functioning on the surface) and electric (for functioning underwater).
- Nuclear submarines are coveted due to their theoretically unlimited endurance – a nuclear reactor on a submarine has an operational life of up to 30 years.
- As they are not propelled by batteries, these submarines only need to come to the surface for replenishing supplies for the crew. They are also able to move much faster than conventional submarines.
‘Buy (Indian)’ category
- ‘Buy (Indian)’ category refers to the procurement of products from an Indian vendor meeting one of the two conditions: products that have been indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with a minimum of 50% Indigenous Content (IC) on cost basis of the total contract value;
- Or products, which may not have been designed and developed indigenously, having 60% IC on cost basis of the total contract value.
