Indian Navy waters fourth Scorpene class submarine under Project 75

Mumbai, May 6: Indian Navy today has watered the fourth stealth Scorpene class Submarines of Project 75  at the Kanhoji Angre Wet Basin of Mazagon Dock Limited at Mumbai. The submarine has been named ‘Vela’ after an earlier submarine, which was the lead submarine, of the erstwhile Vela class, the second batch of the Foxtrot class submarines acquired from erstwhile USSR.

 

The steel cutting for this submarine commenced in July 2009. The submarine has completed joining of all its sections.

The launch ceremony also signifies that four submarines of this project would be afloat and soon join the Navy’s submarine fleet. The submarines are being built at Mazagon Dock Limited, with the main collaborator being M/s Naval group, France.

Secretary Defence Production Dr Ajay Kumar was the Chief Guest for the launch ceremony.

The first Scorpene class submarine INS Kalvari was commissioned into the Indian Navy, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 14 December 2017. The second Scorpene class submarine Khanderi was launched in January 2017 while the third INS Karanj was launched on 31 January 2018.

The remaining two submarines in the country's Scorpene Submarine programme are Vagir and Vagsheer, both of which are currently in the advanced stages of manufacturing at MDL.