Indian Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar has underlined that the country has gained immense knowledge in submarine building and he was confident that India could make nuclear attack subs (SSNs) indigenously.
"On submarines, there is a 30-year submarine building plan which was approved in 1989. Since then, there have been some delays. But Project 75 is a part of this plan and will fit into this. Subsequently, out of the 24 submarines, we will have six nuclear attack submarines. We would like to make it ourselves. We have been learning it for some time, and are now quite confident of manufacturing it," Kumar said in New Delhi.
"This proposal has now been taken up and is currently under process. We are quite hopeful it will come through. These have long gestation periods. But we are quite confident of our capabilities, technology, understanding and the ability to not only build it but operate it as well," he added.
It is worth noting that the Indian Navy currently has no nuclear attack submarine in its fleet.
Previously, India leased SSNs from its long-time strategic partner Russia. However, the lease of the last Russian SSN expired in 2021.
The SSN belonged to Russia's family of Akula-class submarines and was rechristened Chakra-2 upon its arrival in India in 2012.