The ''Shishumar''-class submarines are diesel-electric

attack submarine An attack submarine or hunter-killer submarine is a submarine specifically designed for the purpose of attacking and sinking other submarines, surface combatants and merchant vessels. In the Soviet and Russian navies they were and are called "mul ...

s, currently in active service with the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

. These submarines are an Indian variantThe Indian Strategic Nuclear Submarine Project An Open Literature Analysis
/ref> of the

Type 209 submarine The Type 209 is a class of diesel-electric attack submarine developed exclusively for export by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft of Germany. The original variant (Type 209/1100) was designed in the late 1960s. The class is exclusively designed for ...

s developed by the German yard

Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (often abbreviated HDW) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Kiel. It is part of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) group, owned by ThyssenKrupp. The Howaldtswerke shipyard was founded in Kiel in 183 ...

under the internal designation "Type 1500". The first two vessels were built by HDW at

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

, Germany, while the remainder were built by

Mazagon Dock Limited Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) (IAST: ''Majhagānv Dawk Limiṭeḍ''), formerly called Mazagon Dock Limited, is a shipyard situated in Mazagaon, Mumbai. It manufactures warships and submarines for the Indian Navy and offshore platform ...

, at

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, India, under a technology transfer agreement. The submarines were commissioned between 1986 and 1994. These submarines have a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of 1,660 tons when surfaced, a speed of , and a complement of 40 including eight officers.

History

India signed the agreement for these submarines with

(HDW) on 11 December 1981. The agreement called for building of two submarines in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, the supply of knocked-down kits for assembling two more submarines in

(MDL), and training for construction and logistics services. An agreement was announced in 1984 for the construction of two additional submarines in MDL, but was subsequently cancelled due to economic crisis in the late 1980s. The four submarines that were finally built form the 10th submarine squadron based at

Mid Life Upgrade

The

awarded a $151 million contract for mid-life upgrade and certification of INS ''Shishumar'' in 2018. The refit was carried out by MDL at Mumbai with technical cooperation from

ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems of Germany (often abbreviated TKMS) is a group and holding company of providers of naval vessels, surface ships and submarines. It was founded when large industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp acquired Howaldtswerke-Deuts ...

. The refit was planned to be completed by 2021 with a similar upgrade for another vessel of ''Shishumar''-class submarine to follow.

Ships of the class

Commissions received during the order

In a July 2005 interview with ''

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

'', V. P. Singh said that in 1987, while he was a minister, he had received a telegram from the Indian ambassador in Germany with the information that Indian agents had received large illegal commissions in the HDW submarine deal. Singh informed the then prime minister

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

about this and instituted an enquiry. Subsequently, this led to differences and Singh decided to resign from the cabinet.

References

External links