Submarine Questions of the Week: Dec 27, 2015

Background

Today's submarine questions relate to India's submarine force.  After years of backwater stagnation and tragic accidents, the submarine arm of India Navy's (IN) finally appears to be on track for unprecedented growth.  Unfortunately, the rapid pace of force development assures growing pains are in store and pitfalls still remain.  

 
Molten Eagle certainly wishes all of India's brave submariners the safest environment possible in their hazardous undertakings.

Questions of the Week

1 -  What is the current average age of India's sub fleet?

2 -  Recent accidents - the explosion and sinking of INS Sindhurakshak in 2013, killed 18, and fire on INS Sindhuratna last year killed two officers. Unusually thorough accident reviews resulted in implementation of corrective procedures.  Is India's submarine force made up of volunteers?

3 -  India's navy has a submarine school comprised of three schools, the first is a year-long basics school for officers and enlisted.  What are the other two schools?

4 - According to one officer, what was the minimum passing grade (percentage correct answers) he needed to pass his first test (structure) in the basics school?

5 -  Do India's submarine enlisted and officers attend submarine school together?

6 - India's current fleet of operational submarines includes how many and of what classes?

7 - In addition to its operational fleet, how many subs does India have in sea trials and awaiting procurement?

8 - Besides earning an eventual dolphin badge, what unusual distinction separates India's submariners from every other branch of its military service?

9 - What is the stated purpose of the policy referred to in question 8?

ANSWERS:  Saturday, 2 JAN 2016.

Submarines are always silent and strange. 

Being Fair to India's Navy

Molten Eagle's last post, Ominous Portents for "Infant" India with Nuclear Subs, sought to place India's male literacy rate in a proper context with its advanced nuclear submarine (naval) ambitions. It was pointed out, for example, that India's male literacy rate was below Swaziland's (82.6%).

As rightfully pointed out by an Australian reader, however, Ominous Portents might offend Indian people, particularly in comparison with naval accidents and deaths of other major navies.  "For example if one looked at submarine accidents worldwide since 2000 you would see highly literate Chinese and Russian subs being lost with all hands." 

Fairness and accuracy are always important objectives of Molten Eagle.  The U.S. Navy's own checkered submarine accident record could be a prime example for comparisons if not for the thoroughness of boards of inquiry and some highly sophisticated investigations like this one.

Readers may find the following postscript interesting and more to the point of India's inadequate literacy.

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Opening remarks about Indian professionals in 'Ominous Portents' should salve India's national pride. Having worked with high-performance Indian people myself I can also attest they are among the world's most industrious people.

I do not think I am wrong in pointing out what I see as a looming shortcoming in their national defense ambitions for which many of us continue to hold great hopes.

It is the quality of their "get well" plans that matters most. Russia's major problem has not been know-how; until recently it has been $$$$. China's problem has been neither discipline nor $$$$, it has been inexperience.

Mistakes with nuclear vessels (propulsion and armaments) can be compounded ten-fold. India's navy is still learning to crawl, finding "heavy siltation", "unskilled labourers", and the "tide suddenly receded" at the root of  some of its recent naval accidents.

Readers here may find actual opinions of Indian naval officers helpful, too. What ails the Indian Navy's blue water aspirations?  Annotated excerpts follow [color emphasis mine]:

Consider this incident, not so much for its obvious humor, but for the absence of discilpine it evidences:

"Last week of December, 2013: A shell from the Coast Guard ship Sangram landed inside the premises of the Indian Navy in Mumbai when the ship was clearing its gun upon its return into the harbour."

Finally, quoting from the same link, there is an indigenous suggestion to underscore the importance of Indian literacy:

"It is high time that people realise the need to adhere to laid down procedures." - Vice Admiral (retd) RP Suthan, former Vice Chief of the Naval Staff

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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Ominous Portents for "Infant" India with Nuclear Subs

Choose any learned profession and among its top tier of admired practitioners will be some from the subcontinent we know as India (population ~ 1.2 billion est. 2011).  This is quite a stellar achievement for a country whose male literacy rate is less than The Republic of Congo's (89.6%), Zambia's (86.8%), Botswana's (84.6%), Cambodia's (82.8%), and Swaziland's (82.6%), although India's male literacy is  barely above Egypt's (81.7%) and well above neighboring Pakistan's 70%.

When it comes to managing nuclear submarines could the educated admirals and elites be overreaching?  How well does India's Navy manage its non-nuclear or decommissioned naval assets? Read on...

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January 10, 2008  ME:  Indian Submarine Collision opens Pandora's Box of Intrigue One of India's Kilo-based diesel submarines, INS Sindhughosh scraped under a large merchant ship in the Arabian Sea about 114 nautical miles from Mumbai on Monday. Fortunately, no casualties were reported...

August 15, 2013   Indian navy reels after submarine disaster in Mumbai
New Delhi (CNN) -- The Indian navy suffered its worst peacetime disaster this week when an explosion and fire sank a submarine with 18 sailors on board in a Mumbai dockyard. ...Navy officials, meanwhile, are trying to figure out what went wrong on the INS Sindhurakshak, a submarine that had only recently returned from an extensive refitting in Russia.  ..."The accident is all the more painful because the navy had recently achieved two major successes in the form of its first nuclear submarine, INS Arihant, and the aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant," he said.

August 22, 2013 - Inside China: China ridicules Indian navy
“Paper tiger” was the term used by the Communist Party-run newspaper, the Global Times, to describe the Indian navy, which has been locked in a fierce buildup race with the Chinese navy. The newspaper challenged India’s claim that the INS Vikrant is “indigenous,” calling it a “brand of 10,000 nations” because the ship is said to have used French blueprints, Russian air wings and U.S.-made engines. “[The submarine’s explosion] seems to have provided a footnote to India’s real naval prowess,” the Global Times reported Monday in language that clearly gloated about the mishap.

Jan 26, 2014 - New Delhi: Indian Navy removes captains of two frontline ships INS Talwar, INS Betwa  The Indian Navy has removed the captains of two frontline warships INS Talwar and INS Betwa, Captain Gopal Suri and Captain Deepak Bisht respectively from their positions.  A newspaper report said, both the captains have been stripped of their positions for serious lapses that led to accidents under their command.

Jan 28, 2014  - THE HINDU   Chennai - Toll in Chennai submarine mishap climbs to two

The toll in the mishap at the decommissioned submarine INS Vagli docked at the port here rose to two on Tuesday as another person succumbed to anoxia, police said.  Bhavani Shankar (47), owner of the contracting firm who tried to rescue his employee, Mahendran (36) from a manhole-like structure inside INS Vagli succumbed to the adverse impact in absence of oxygen, police said. Mahendran (36), who had gone inside the submarine on Monday, fainted in absence of oxygen and later died.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.