Pakistan's induction of new Chinese submarine puts spotlight on India's lagging undersea arm

The Pakistani Navy has commissioned its first Chinese Hangor-Class submarine at Sanya on the Hainan Island, a major Chinese naval centre. The Hangor-class of submarines is a derivative of the Chinese Type-39A attack submarine. The submarine, PNS Hangor is the first of eight such vessels that the Chinese will be providing to the Pakistanis by 2028. Four of these vessels are being built in Karachi, while the other four have been built and launched by the China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Co. Ltd (CSOC), as reported by Naval News.


What makes the Hangor-class vessels deadly is that they are equipped with an Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system. An AIP system allows conventional diesel-electric submarines to stay fully submerged for a longer duration of time as it does not have to come up to the surface to run its diesel engines to charge its batteries. A submarine equipped with such a system can stay submerged for two to three weeks. A conventional submarine without an AIP system has to surface or snorkel more frequently and hence becomes more vulnerable to aircraft and surface vessels. The commissioning of the submarine will bring the total number of operational AIP equipped submarines in the Pakistani fleet to four, which will grow to eleven by 2028. All three of Pakistan's current fleet of Agosta-90B submarines are currently equipped with an AIP system provided to them by the Turkish firm STM, as reported by The Diplomat, based in the United States.


On the other hand the Indian Navy currently has on its register 16 conventional, diesel electric submarines from three different classes, which are the Kalvari, Sindhughosh and Shishumar classes of submarines. With only the six submarines of the Kalvari class expected to get indigenously developed AIP systems, over the next few years. The Indian Navy is looking to induct six Type-214 submarines which will come equipped with an AIP system.

The Indian Navy had devised a plan to induct 24 conventional submarines by 2030. Four submarines of the Sindhughosh-class, the Sindhughosh, Sindhudhvaj, Sindhuvir and Sindhurakshak have been retired by the navy. The Shishumar-class of submarines have recently gone through a mid-life upgrade and are expected to soldier on for a decade, as reported by Naval Technology. Thereby dulling the edge of the Indian Navy in this important domain of naval warfare.