German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit over the weekend, the first stand- alone one in 11 years highlighted the shift in Euro centric Germany’s renewed focus on the Indo Pacific in furtherance of its Indo-Pacific strategy articulated in 2021.
Amongst many things slated to be discussed were cooperation in Green Hydrogen, a free trade arrangement with the EU and a free and open Indo-Pacific. “However, any strategic dialogue on the Indo Pacific is underscored by the importance of a secure maritime environment to ensure rules based order and a Free and Open Indo Pacific,” opines a senior officer who wished to remain anonymous.
Hence defence cooperation, largely not spoken about, should also have figured in the discussion. Financial Express Online has reported earlier that India intends to build six conventional submarines under Project 75(I) in collaboration with a foreign partner and enough Transfer of Technology (ToT) to ensure that the next class of submarines are totally indigenous.
According to the officer quoted above, “Germany leads the world in conventional submarine design and technology. The Type 209 submarine programme in collaboration with Germany in the 1980s for four submarines, of which two were built in India in the early 90s, was a benchmark in defence cooperation, predating the present thrust on Make in India by three decades.”
These four submarines continue to be in frontline deployment and have never returned to Germany either for repairs, refit or modernisation, all of which has been undertaken in India with German oversight for certification.
On Saturday (Feb 25, 2023) soon after the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a special briefing, foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said that the two leaders took forward their discussions on enhancing defence cooperation.
According to foreign secretary, the two leaders noted that defence cooperation is an important pillar of India-Germany Strategic Partnership. And both sides put forward views on the partnership especially in the field of co-innovation, transfer of technology and co-design can move forward especially in the field of defence.
Was Project 75 (I) discussed?
Whether P 75(I) was discussed is not known, but it would have been in India’s interest to do so and to expedite the P75 (I) programme under an overarching governmental arrangement to enhance India’s currently beleaguered undersea warfare capability.
Ahead of the visit the German ambassador to India Phillip Ackerman had mentioned that this will be on the agenda of talks between the two leaders.
The officer quoted earlier stated that Germany’s submarine building capacity is likely to be fully utilised to counter the emerging security challenges in Europe.
“It could therefore benefit by making India an export hub for expanding its submarine footprint in the Indo-Pacific as more and more countries in the region invest in augmenting their submarine force levels,” he opined.
Ahead of the German Chancellor’s visit it has been reported that the Project 75 (I) which is worth US$ 5.2 billion would be discussed when the leaders met in New Delhi.
For the project under which six conventional submarines are expected to be built jointly under the Strategic Partnership Model, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) of Germany is one of two international bidders.
Financial Express Online has reported earlier that Naval Group of France had announced that it was pulling out of the race ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Paris in 2022. And it has cited its inability to fulfil the conditions which were listed in the global tender floated in 2021.
Navantia Group of Spain and Rosoboronexport of Russia too had announced that they were exiting from the competition which left Korean Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), and TKMS.
It has been reported earlier that P-75I submarines are expected to be equipped with a “sea-proven” fuel cell Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP). Theoretically the two companies left in the fray TKMS and DSME are the only ones with proven AIP and the Ministry of Defence will have to take a decision soon.
Submarines to counter growing presence of China
With the growing presence of the Chinese navy in the Indian Ocean, the Indian Navy is keen to replace its ageing submarine fleet as at this moment 11 out of its 16 submarines are almost decades old.
Whichever foreign OEM is shortlisted, it will have to tie up with a local company in India to build the submarines under the `Make in India’ initiative.