The first of six Scorpene submarines was undocked at Mazagon Dock Limited on Monday morning by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. He has asked all the Defence Public Sector Undertakings to double the production. The submarine will be launched in September. This will be followed by a formal commissioning or induction into the Indian Navy in September 2016. Here's a look at the specifics:

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

1. It will be armed with Black Shark torpedoes– an advanced heavy weight torpedo missile developed by WASS (Italy). It is associated with Scorpene diesel-electric submarines and Exocet missiles (French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft).

2. The first four of the six submarines will be diesel-electric, while the last two will be Air Independent Propulsion or AIP developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation. This means that the first four submarines will not be able to remain submerged for long durations and will be resurface to recharge its batteries using snorkelling pipe.

3. The first submarine will be named INS Kalvari, while the second will be christened as INS Khanderi.

4. This submarine will join India's 13 diesel-electric submarines out of which only half of them are available at any given time for operations.

5. The submarine is built in India by Mazagon Dock Limited under Transfer-of-Technology from DCNS, France.