Context: The Defence Acquisition Council, the apex decision-making body for the acquisition of military equipment, cleared proposals to buy three additional Scorpene.
Scorpene Submarines
- The Scorpene submarines are conventional attack submarines, meaning that they are designed to target and sink adversary naval vessels.
- Capable of launching a large array of torpedoes and missiles.
- Equipped with a range of surveillance and intelligence-gathering mechanisms.
- They have a state-of-the-art SONAR suite and sensor suite permitting outstanding operational capabilities.
- They have a length of 220 feet and height of approximately 40 feet.
- They can reach the top speeds of 11 knots (20 km/h) when surfaced and 20 knots (37 km/h) when submerged.
- Scorpene class submarines use diesel electric propulsion systems.
- This propulsion system alternates between using diesel (for functioning on the surface) and electric (for functioning underwater).
- They can operate independently without refuelling for approximately 50 days, after that they need to come on surface to recharge batteries.
Scorpene Vs Nuclear Submarine
| Scorpene Submarine | Nuclear Submarine |
| conventional submarines are restricted in submerged endurance as per their battery capacity which powers them, they need to resurface to recharge. | Nuclear submarines theoretically have unlimited endurance. A nuclear reactor on a submarine has an operational life of up to 30 years. |
| As refueling is required they come to surface more often. | These submarines only need to come to the surface for replenishing supplies for the crew. |
| Diesel electric technology has improved the range of conventional submarines as well as their stealth. But they are slower than the nuclear submarine. | They are able to move much faster than conventional submarines. |
| Cost of building and operating of conventional submarine is almost half in comparison to Nuclear Submarine. | Nuclear submarines are expensive and require a significant amount of specialised experience to operate. |
| These submarines are almost silent, with the only noise coming from the shaft bearings, propeller, and flow around the hull. | They are comparatively noisy, the reactor is always running, creating steam noise, which can be heard on sonar. |
Project 75(I)
Project-75 (India), also known as P-75(I), is a military acquisition initiative by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The initiative aims to procure diesel-electric attack submarines with fuel cells and Air-Independent Propulsion System (AIP) for the Indian Navy to build India's naval strength and develop indigenous submarine-building capabilities.
- Conventional diesel-electric submarines such as the Scorpene etc. are under this project.
- Under this program six conventional submarines are to be built with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems that will allow them to stay underwater for longer.