Anurag Kumar
France has agreed to arm the air independent propulsion (AIP) equipped submarine with a naval cruise missile with double the range of the SCALP air-to-ground missile carried by Indian Air Force (IAF) Rafale fighters. This is in addition to the offer to build three more Scorpene class submarines for the Indian Navy at the Mazagon Dockyards in Mumbai.
The naval version of the SCALP missile has a range of over one thousand kilometres when launched from a submarine and up to fourteen hundred kilometres when launched from a warship. The subsonic cruise missile is propelled by a turbojet and remains subsurface while approaching the target before ascending into the air and destroying any potential enemy threat on the ground. The French Navy has been using the missile on its frigates since 2017 and on its submarines of the Barracuda class beginning in 2022. After minor modifications to the torpedo tubes, the missile can also be used on Scorpene-class submarines.
While Indian Navy officials and diplomats have observed the performance of the Naval SCALP in France, it is believed that the missile manufacturer is willing to produce the cruise weapon in India in accordance with the “Make in India” initiative. The decision to construct three additional submarines at MDL was made because the complete process for the Indian Navy’s Project 75 I will take at least 15 years. In 1999, when Atal Bihari Vajapee was the prime minister and George Fernandes was the defence minister, the decision was made to produce six Scorpene (Kalveri)-class submarines. This allows us to estimate the delay. The sixth submarine will be delivered to the Indian Navy in 2024, a quarter century after Prime Minister Vajpayee’s Cabinet Committee on Security approved the 30-year submarine programme.
Given the rapid expansion of the Chinese Navy, which is expected to patrol the waters of the Indian Ocean by 2025, the Indian Navy has no choice but to counter the PLAN challenge in the Indo-Pacific, as it cannot allow Beijing to control the sea lanes from the Gulf of Aden to the South China Sea with the assistance of India’s former bitter rival Pakistan.
From the content of bilateral ties with France, it is evident that PM Modi’s visit will catapult the strategic relationship into high motion, with President Emmanuel Macron and his companies merely waiting for India to request the technology it desires.
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Politically, it is quite intriguing that the US and France have offered PM Modi a state visit on the eve of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, whereas they offered the same to UPA Prime Minister Manmohan Singh immediately after the Congress won 206 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The fact that both President Biden and President Macron have honoured Prime Minister Modi demonstrates their confidence in the Indian leader in 2024.
Both Biden and Macron have close personal relationships with Prime Minister Modi, who prefers to speak his mind without compromising India’s strategic autonomy, be it on the Ukraine conflict or China’s expansion.
