India to receive advanced ‘Submarine Rescue System’ from UK

New Delhi/London: Taking into consideration the Chinese threat, India is increasing its preparedness to handle all kinds of emergency situations in deep waters. Within a month, the Indian Navy will receive its first advanced Submarine ‘Rescue System’. India had signed an agreement for INR 175 billion with a UK company for two ‘Flyaway Submarine Rescue Systems’. The work on the first of the two systems being manufactured for the Indian Navy has been completed. The second system will be handed over to India in the month of June.

Submarine-Rescue-System The natural Indian influence in the Indian Ocean is being challenged by China. Chinese destroyers and submarines have started moving in the Indian Ocean. Thus, experts are comparing the naval strengths of both the countries. Chinese Navy has 68 submarines in its fleet against 15 in the Indian Naval fleet, some of which are close to decommissioning. One Arihant-class and two Calvary-class submarines are undergoing pre-commission testing while five more submarines of the same classes are being manufactured. Along with increasing the number of submarines, the Indian Navy is also commissioning anti-submarine destroyers and aircrafts in its fleet.

India needs to strengthen its position in submarines warfare and the advanced ‘Submarine Rescue System’ was necessary for this purpose. This system has the capacity for deep water rescue where rescue operations can be initiated immediately during incidences of an enemy attack or a mishap and can save lives of the deployed soldiers.

A Scottish company “JFD”, has developed ‘Fly-away Submarine Rescue Systems’ which is the most advanced submarine rescue system in the world. The company claims that this system can carry out a rescue operation in the deep seas in minimal time. The system includes equipment like ‘Deep Search and Rescue Vehicles’ (DSRV), ‘Launch and Recovery Systems’ (LARS) and ‘Transfer Under Pressure’ (TUP) systems.

The company announced that work on one of the two systems, as per the agreement with India, has been recently completed. The system is ready for testing now and this ‘Flyaway Submarine Rescue System’ will be handed over to the Indian Navy next month, following which the system will undergo testing. The work on the second system has been started and the second ‘Fly-away Submarine Rescue System’ will be available to the Indian Navy by end of June.

Currently, very few countries in the world have this kind of advanced system and India will soon be one of those. ‘India is a very important strategic partner for the UK. The UK is keen to increase co-operation with the Indian Defence Forces’, said Simon Everest, head of the UK government’s Department for Trade Defence and Security Organisation.