ISLAMABAD: The Indian Navy has retired its ageing Russian-origin submarine INS Sindhughosh, reducing its conventional submarine fleet to 16, mostly old platforms, underscoring a widening capability gap as modernization plans fall years behind schedule, said an Indian media report.

The report highlights a deepening “acute and fast-worsening shortfall in underwater combat capability” in the Indian Navy.

“This leaves the force with 16 conventional submarines, including 10 between 25 years and 40 years vintage. India’s underwater arm of conventional submarines – operating on a mix of diesel-electric power — is now at the same numerical strength as it was in the late 1990s.”

Deepening crisis

Highlighting the deepening crisis, the report states that “of these 16 conventional submarines in the existing fleet, only six vessels are equipped with the ‘latest technology’.”

“In the late 1990s, the Navy had a similar number of conventional submarines, but at least 14 of them – 10 of Russian origin and four of German origin — were equipped with the best available technology of that era.”

About the current situation, the report states, “Today, only the six Scorpene-class vessels made in India, in collaboration with the Naval Group of France, all commissioned in the last six to seven years, have the latest technology.”

‘Impossible’

In 1999, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved a 30-year submarine construction plan targeting 24 conventional submarines by 2030.

“With just four years to go, getting to that number seems impossible,” the report states.

Ageing platforms of the Shishumar-class and the Sindhughosh-class dominate India’s submarine force.

In the 1990s, these very submarines featured the latest technology. In the late 1980s, India had sourced four submarines from Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) of Germany.

Two of these were built at Mazagon Dock Limited in 1992 and 1994, and the other two were built in Germany.

The HDW has since been taken over by the TKMS and is operated in the navy as the Shishumar class.

Only six of ten remain

The Indian Navy inducted 10 Sindhughosh-class vessels from Russia between 1986 and 2000.

With the decommissioning of the INS Sindhughosh, only six submarines remain.

The Sindhurakshak was lost in an explosion in 2013; the INS Sindhudhvaj was retired in 2022, and the INS Sindhuvir was gifted to Myanmar in 2020.

Indian Navy

As INS Sindhughosh signs off, Indian Navy down to 1990s’ strength: Report