India is import-substituting military shipbuilding Business RusLetter

India seeks to develop its own military shipbuilding and production of naval weapons, Rear Admiral Kunal Singh Rajkumar told reporters during a briefing at the headquarters of the Western Command of the Indian Navy in Mumbai. So far, ships, aircraft and other equipment of the Navy are of foreign, mostly Russian origin.

“We want to strive to achieve as much independence as possible in such a strategic area as the construction and maintenance of the navy, this is our goal, although we are open to cooperation with all foreign partners,” Rajkumar said. According to him, the Indian-built aircraft carrier Vikrant, which was launched in 2013 but became part of the Indian Navy only a year ago, at the end of July 2022, is a symbol of import substitution. He named Mumbai’s Mazagon Dock Shipyard among the largest Indian military shipyards. .

“Vikrant” was developed under the program Indigenous aircraft carrier (“Domestic aircraft carrier”), and Rear Admiral Rajkumar called it “completely Indian”, but the Russian Design Bureau “Nevskoye” and the Italian company AVIO participated in the design of the ship, foreign units and materials were used, in including steel from Russia. The only Indian aircraft carrier Vikramaditya that operated until last year is the Soviet aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov, which was deeply modernized at Sevmash and handed over to India in 2013. Both ships have an air group of Russian MiG-29K/KUB fighters. Rajkumar also mentioned the renewal of the submarine fleet under a contract with France in 2005 for the licensed construction at Mazagon Dock Shipyard of six non-nuclear submarines of the Scorpene type developed by France, the fifth of which entered service in January 2023.