Images Show Design For Indian Navy Indigenous Coastal Submarine

A short video shared on Twitter user appears to show a new indigenous submarine design for the Indian Navy. The presentation is from Indian engineering company Larsen Toubro (L&T) which is involved in submarine and special forces diver transport projects. The submarine is generally smaller than the Type-209/1500 Sindhughosh class and Pr. 877EKM KILO (Sindhughosh class) boats. It is however larger than the X-Craft used by the Pakistan Navy, especially their newest class.

However, its small size places it in the category of coastal submarines, at the large end of ‘midget submarines’. This puts it in company with the North Korean Sang-O class and Iranian Fateh Class). Significantly the Indian design can carry two swimmer delivery vehicles (SDVs) for special forces. In the compromise, it only has two torpedo tubes with no reloads. This arrangement is actually most similar to the Pakistan Navy’s MG-110 X-Craft, although the Indian design is much larger.

Production Potential

The Indian Navy has a residual requirement for small coastal submarines to support its special forces. It is unclear whether this design is a sanctioned project, however, and even less so whether it will ever be built. India has gained significant experience in submarine building but is, overall, focused on nuclear boats. At the forefront of these are the Arihant Class and follow-on SSBN and SSN classes. It seems well within India’s capacity to design and build coastal submarines.