India Looking for Additional Submarines

Scorpene construction
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Infodefensa relays a Negocios newspaper report [Espanol] that Navantia has submitted its S-80 Class currently under development for Spain, in response to an Indian Navy RFP for a follow-on submarine purchase. The purchase would follow India’s 2005 contract for 6 Scorpene Class submarines, and is expected to allocate almost EUR 3 million (about $4.5 billion) to buy another 6 submarines.

Infodefensa adds that bids for the follow-on contract have also been submitted by France’s DCNS (likely the Scorpene AIM-2000, or possibly the in-development Marlin Class), Russia’s Rubin (Advanced Kilo Class, note the recently returned Kilo refit, though), and Germany’s HDW (likely the Type 214).

Thanks to DID subscriber Pedro Lucio for his tip and translation assistance. Interestingly, the Negocios article also says that the Government of India had asked Navantia for a proposal to supply up to 7 modern frigates, but Navantia’s leadership decided not to respond after carefully analyzing the requirements, and taking into account its order book for the next few years. See “India Issues RFI for “Stealth Frigates” for more background on that topic. Navantia is currently building frigates for Spain, Norway, and Australia.