India will get the first P75 Scorpene submarine being developed by French naval defence firm DCNS commissioned by 2015.
While the first Scorpene is expected to be launched by 2013-end and commissioned in 2015, the last will be commissioned in 2018. Union minister of state for defence M.M. Pallam Raju disclosed the above on Monday while inaugurating the facility centre jointly developed by city-based SEC Industries and DCNS for delivering 14 key equipment of the Scorpene submarine.
French ambassador to India M. Francois Richier was present at the occasion along with DCNS SA (France) executive VP and chief operating officer Bernard Planchais.
DCNS India is aiming at indigenously manufacturing the components and equipment and providing transfer of technology, consultancy and technical assistance under the P75 Scorpene submarine programme for the Indian Navy. The company will also provide training and technical support to assist implementation of manufacturing processes and quality control procedures for a period of five years.
In September 2011, DCNS India had signed the first contract with SEC Industries to manufacture equipment for Scorpene submarines followed by another contract in May 2012 for more equipment under transfer of technology. “We expect the first submarine by 2015 and thereafter every nine months, we shall get one more. By 2018 all would have been delivered with the total cost being a little over `20,000 crore,” said Mr Raju.
He added that India had got investments to the tune of `20,000 crore till date due to its defence offset policy that directs foreign defence equipment suppliers to source at least 30 per cent of contract val-ue from Indian suppliers.
Mr Bernard Buisson, managing director of DCNS India, said that factory acceptance test for the first indigenously manufactured P75 cofferdam doors had been successfully performed at SEC Industries in June.
SEC Industries, a key defence component manufacturer here, is striving ahead in tapping the defence offset policy by bagging this Rs 310 crore deal in Scorpenes.
D. Vidyasagar, MD of SEC Industries, expressed satisfaction over delivering key indigenous equipment for Scorpene submarines.