NEW DELHI : India is steadily steaming ahead to have a stronger and networked blue-water Navy with over 200 warships and submarines by 2035 to protect its vast maritime interests and tackle the fast-expanding collusive threat from China and Pakistan on the high seas after the land borders.With the maritime domain becoming increasingly crucial in the national strategic calculus amid the ongoing geopolitical churn, the Navy currently has 55 big and small warships under construction in Indian shipyards at an overall cost of around Rs 99,500 crore, according to the latest information gathered by TOI .

The force also has the initial approval or ‘acceptance of necessity (AoN)’ for indigenous construction of another 74 warships and vessels for Rs 2.35 lakh crore. These projects, for which contracts are yet to be inked, include major ones for nine dieselelectric submarines, seven nextgeneration multi-role stealth frigates, eight anti-submarine warfare corvettes and 12 mine countermeasure vessels.Also, there are other projects in the pipeline for the grant of AoN, which includes four nextgeneration destroyers with a displacement of 10,000-tonne each. The Navy also remains keen on the indigenous construction of a second aircraft carrier after the over 40,000tonne INS Vikrant to eventually replace the older Russian-origin INS Vikramaditya.“One cannot build a Navy overnight. It takes years of planning and construction. Apart from the P5 (US, Russia, China, France and UK), India is the only nation that can now design, build and operate aircraft carriers and SSBNs (nuclear-powered submarines with ballistic missiles),” a senior officer said.“Any expenditure on warship-building has a multiplier effect of 1.8 times on the domestic economy, with one shipyard job creating five to six jobs in ancillary industries,” he added.At present, the Navy has 140 warships, including 17 dieselelectric submarines (11 of them very old) and two SSBNs, along with over 250 aircraft and helicopters. With older warships to be progressively retired, plans are in place to build the force to over 200 warships and submarines, with 350 naval aircraft and helicopters, over the coming decade. “The force-level could even touch 230 warships by 2037,” another officer said.With the world’s largest Navy with 370 warships and submarines, China is rapidly expanding its footprint in the Indian Ocean Region, while hunting for more oversea bases and turnaround facilities after Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, Karachi and Gwadar in Pakistan and Ream in Cambodia.China, of course, is also helping Pakistan enhance its naval capabilities. Pakistan, for instance, will get eight Yuan or Hangor-class diesel-electric submarines with air-independent propulsion (AIP) for greater underwater endurance from the neighbouring country.“Pakistan has five old Agosta-class submarines at present. Induction of the Hangor-class boats from next year onwards will give it a major capability jump in sea denial capabilities,” the officer said.Given this, India’s depleting conventional underwater combat arm remains a big worry. Commercial negotiations are now finally underway for the construction of six diesel-electric submarines, with both AIP and land-attack cruise missiles, which are worth over Rs 70,000 crore, by Mazagon Docks (MDL) in partnership with German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).The project to build three more French-origin Scorpene submarines for over Rs 32,000 crore at MDL, however, remains stalled. Apart from the six new Scorpenes, the Navy has seven very old Russian Kilo-class and four German HDW submarines at present.