India close to acquiring French submarine

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New Delhi, Aug 29: India is expected to clear the way for the purchase of six ‘Scorpene’ submarines from French companies DCN and Thales.

Senior officials told FE that the Cabinet would clear the $2 billion deal shortly as a prelude to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to France from September 11, on his way to New York next month.

The submarines will be built at the state-owned Mazagon dockyard in Mumbai, with technical assistance and equipment from French companies. The submarines are to be delivered between 2010 and 2015. As part of the deal, the submarines would be armed with EADS SM-39 Exocet anti-ship missiles.

However, Naval headquarters is worried that its fleet, “particularly the submarine strike arm”, was de-commissioning vessels faster than it can acquire them. “We have waited long, too long actually,” said the chief of naval staff, Admiral Arun Prakash, when asked about the proposal to acquire the Scorpene submarines.

The Cabinet committee on security is expected to meet later this week to discuss the proposal on Scorpene submarines, that had been cleared by naval headquarters nearly a year back. India has been in negotiations with France to acquire and jointly develop six 1,500-tonne Scorpene submarines at the Mazagon docks.