After almost two decades, the Navy will induct its first modern conventional submarine into the fleet when Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissions the first Scorpene submarine Kalvari in Mumbai on Thursday.
“Kalvari is a potent Man o’ War capable of undertaking offensive operations spanning across the entire spectrum of Maritime Warfare. She embodies cutting-edge technology and compares favourably with the best in the world,” the Navy said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Navy last inducted a conventional diesel-electric submarine, INS Sindhushastra, procured from Russia in July 2000.
Kalvari, named after a deep sea tiger shark, weighs about 1,600 tonnes and carries the sea skimming SM 39 Exocet missiles and the heavy weight wire guided Surface and Underwater Target (SUT) torpedoes. For self-defence it has mobile anti-torpedo decoys.
Advanced system
“The boat also has her two 1250 kW MAN diesel engines for rapidly charging batteries. The submarine boasts of a highly advanced Combat Management System and a sophisticated Integrated Platform Management System,” the Navy said.
However, the heavy weight torpedoes are yet to be procured as the earlier deal got scrapped due to allegations of corruption. In the interim, the existing older generation torpedoes had been customised to fire from them.