Russian submarine has good chances to win tender in India

The new Russian submarine “Amur-1650” is taking part in the tender which India is holding for purchasing and licensed producing 6 non-atomic submarines.

Experts say that the Russian submarine has good chances to win.

The “Amur” has already been tested at a plant where it is produced – and found highly battle-worthy. Hydroacoustic cover of the latest generation makes it practically unnoticeable for radars.

“Still, it would be too early to have no doubts that the Russian submarine would win this tender,” the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper “Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie” (“Independent Military Review”) Victor Litovkin says.

“The majority of diesel submarines which the Indian navy currently possesses are Russian-made, some of them made back in the Soviet time. In total, 80% of the weapons currently used by the Indian army and navy are Russian-made. However, it would be a bit too optimistic to say for sure that as far as Russian submarines have been popular in India until now, Indians will choose the Russian submarine this time as well. The matter is that India now wants new, modernized arms, and to make Indians prefer the Russian submarine to those made by other competitors, this time, Russia has to offer something really special. Still, Russia’s trump card is that we are ready not only to sell our submarines to India, but to help Indians produce submarines of their own.”

The producer of the Russian submarine, a design engineering bureau named “Rubin”, has done much to adjust its brainchild to the demands of the Indian navy. The submarine has an energy device of a new generation which can work out energy no matter how long the submarine stays under water (with the energy devices of the older generations, submarines had to regularly rise to the surface to reload their batteries). Besides, they made the submarine especially fit for accommodating the supersonic cruise missiles “BrahMos” (which are a joint production of Russia and India). Thus, the Russian submarine has good chances of winning the tender, though the ones suggested by other competitors, Germany and Sweden, are also highly evaluated by experts.

However, even if Russia doesn’t win this tender, it won’t mean a big loss for it in cooperation with India in the sphere of military equipment. The two countries still have many other joint projects in this sphere – for example, Russia is currently modernizing the Indian aircraft carrier “Vikramaditya”. It is planned to test it in the open sea in 2012.

Here is Victor Litovkin again:

“India has already received planes for this aircraft carrier and is already using them. Russia is also modernizing the non-atomic submarines once sold by it to India – to be more precise, we are adjusting them to use Russian “Club” supersonic anti-ship missiles, which have already become very popular in the Indian navy. Besides, Indians want to receive the finance leasing for Russian atomic submarines “Nerpa”. Russia also supplies its “T-90” tanks to India. Indians already have about 500 such tanks, but are intending to purchase another 1,500. Moreover, Russia supplies parts of the “Sukhoy-30” planes for Indians to assemble these planes at their plants.”

So, it would be wrong to say that India is rejecting its former policy of cooperating with Russia in the sphere of military equipment, preferring Western partners instead. The plans of joint work of Indian and Russian designers over a warplane of the newest, the 5th, generation is more evidence of that.

- The voice of Russia