India has achieved self-reliance in building naval vessels, including aircraft carriers, an Indian Navy veteran has said.
The remarks of Commodore (Retd) Anil Jai Singh, who served in India's maritime force as a specialist submariner for three decades, came days after a senior Indian Navy official stated that New Delhi was now looking forward to accomplishing 100 percent localization in military warship production and naval weapons manufacturing.
"We want to strive to achieve as much independence as possible in such a strategic area as the construction and maintenance of the navy, this is our goal, although we are open to cooperation with all foreign partners," Rear Admiral Kunal Singh Rajkumar said in a press conference in Mumbai earlier this week.
At present, the majority of the Indian Navy's fleet of vessels, fighter jets, and weapons are of foreign origin.
India No Longer Needs Overseas Help in Building Warships
In this light, Singh stressed that the Indian Navy has been encouraging indigenous ship-building right from the beginning, and from 1972 onwards when the Nilgiri-class ships were made in India, most ships have been manufactured indigenously.
As per Singh, presently 40 odd ships are under construction for India's blue water force. But only two are being built abroad and the rest are being made in India and those two naval vessels called the 11356M frigates are being developed by Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC). Other than that, India has no other ship-building program in any other country at the moment.
"As far as military ship-building goes, India has already reached the level of indigenization, where we don't need to go overseas for our future ship-building requirements," Singh told Sputnik on Friday.
India Joins Elite League of Nations in the Naval Domain
Last year, India joined a select group of countries that have the capability to build an aircraft carrier after the domestically produced INS Vikrant was commissioned into the Indian Navy.
The Vikrant is a 44,000-tonne warship that has 76 percent local content.
Previously, only Russia, France, China, the US, the UK, and Italy had manufactured aircraft carriers.
Singh, however, pointed out that India was yet to reach a stage where it could produce military ship engines locally, and hence cooperation in this domain will continue with partner nations like Russia.
Singh, however, pointed out that India was yet to reach a stage where it could produce military ship engines locally, and hence cooperation in this domain will continue with partner nations like Russia.
The 5th submarine of Project–75 Vagir delivered to the Indian Navy on 20 Dec 2022.
© Photo : Indian Navy
Partnership With Russia and Other Countries to Continue in Other Areas
"Of course, we don't make diesel engines, and some of our weapons are imported and that collaboration will continue wherever required," he added.
On the other hand, the defense analyst mentioned that as far as India's nuclear submarine program was concerned, Moscow has supported New Delhi's nuclear submarine program for decades.
The Eurasian country, he noted, leased India two nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) in the past, which helped the South Asian nation learn about how nuclear subs are operated.
In addition, the Indian Navy's personnel gained invaluable experience concerning their technological aspects.
"But India is now seeking a higher level of nuclear technology in terms of SSNs and the support that Russia has given us will stand us in good stead in developing those designs of ours," he concluded.