First of India's attack Scorpene submarines undocked

Indian Navy's first Scorpene submarine under Project 75 was undocked  at the Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in the presence of the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R.K. Dhowan, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and others officials also graced the a puja ceremony to mark the auspicious launching of the vessel.

The ‘undocking’ marks the movement of the submarine mounted on pontoons from the berth area in the dock to the harbour where it will undergo further tests. 

(Representative image courtesy Wikipedia)

In 1999, India conceived a 30- year programme  to build 24 submarines. In October 2005, the contract for 'Project-75' was awarded to French defence giant DCNS to build six Franco-Spanish Scorpene-class diesel attack submarines at Mazgaon Docks Ltd. The deal involved extensive technology transfer agreements.

Christened as 'INS Kalveri' (meaning 'The Tiger Shark.) this submarine was scheduled to be inducted in 2012 (now revised to Sept 2016). Thereafter the next five submarines are expected to be rolled out at intervals of nine months each.

Commenting on the delay Parikkar said, “Time is crucial factor in completion of defence projects. I would urge the PSUs to double their production capacities in three years and complete the project on or before time,”.

The first four of the six submarines will be diesel-electric, while the last two will be Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation. This means that the first four submarines will not be able to remain submerged for long durations and will need to resurface to recharge its batteries  or using snorkeling pipe.

The submarine is built using special steel which can take high yield stress. Its high tensile strength allows it to bear high hydrostatic force allowing deeper depth dives.

The submarines are expected to will be armed with Black Shark torpedoes ( an advanced heavy weight torpedo missile developed by WASS, Italy and Exocet missiles (French-built anti-ship missile). The submarine  would be able to launch its armament whilst underwater or an surface with precision delivering a crippling blow to the enemy.

Indian Army To Use Swati Gun Locating Radars

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) of the ministry of defence has cleared the acquisition of 30 weapon locating radars – Swati – from Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) at a total cost of Rs 1,605 crores ($256 million).

Till the Kargil War India did not have any Gun Locating Radar. It only had the British Cymbline Mortar locating Radar. A few pieces of the American ANTPQ 36, gun locating radars  were bought off the shelf to meet the immediate requirements during the Kargil War. The purpose of such radars is to find the position (location) from which the hostile flat trajectory, high angle trajectory guns & mortars and rockets are being fired on own troops. This facilitates the direction of the fire of own artillery guns & rockets to silence and destroy such enemy guns and rockets 

                    A scale model of the WLR. The array is at its maximum slew setting of 125°.

The DRDO and Bharat Electronics now has developed an indigenous radar for the purpose. Their first version was  called Rajendra. Swati  Radar is their latest improved version. It is believed that the DRDO scientists while testing the trajectory of the missiles at Chandipur observed that their tracking radars could pick up artillery guns booming at a nearby army firing range. This led to the development of Rajendra model & its improved version Swati.

The range for the Swati radar while tracking gun shells is more than 20 kms and for rockets, about 30 kms.

These radars will be used by the Surveillance and Target Acquisition Branch of Indian Artillery. Swati, the radar has been developed as a coherent, electronically scanned C-Band pulse doppler radar. 

The radar will automatically locates hostile artillery, mortars and rocket launchers and direct friendly fire to locate the impact point of friendly artillery fire to issue necessary corrections.

India to Have Third Consulate in Chengdu

After prolonged talks with China & an unfavourable outcome, India has reconciled to set up its Consulate in Chengdu. China ignored India’s proposal to re-establish its Consulate in provincial capital of Tibet Lhasa. The Consulate in Lhasa was closed during the 1962 war. Nepal is the only country to have a Consulate in Lhasa.

Chengdu has geographical proximity to Tibet. It is the capital of the well industrialised Chinese province of Sichuan. Several other countries including the United States have Consulates in Chengdu.

In view of the recent improvement of relations and growing trade and investments, this move is expected to further firm up diplomatic ties and expand trade between the two countries. 

Besides the Embassy in Beijing, this will be  fourth Indian Consulate in China. India currently has three other Consulates in China, viz., in Shanghai and Guangzhou and in  Hong Kong, which is termed as a Special Administrative Region.

India on its end has permitted China  to open its third Consulate in India in Chennai. For China, Chennai will mark a new opening in South India where it is looking to step up investments. China's  other Consul General missions are in Mumbai and Kolkata apart from its Embassy in New Delhi.

The official statement in this regard this is likely to be made during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in May.

China has agreed to open a new land route for Indian pilgrims to travel to Kailash Mansarovar through Nathu La Pass. However it remains  reluctant to allow re-establishment of the Indian Consulate in Lhasa, perhaps due to its political sensitivities in Tibet.

China is to undertake a feasibility study to build a high speed railway connecting Chennai and New Delhi.