BDL Sets Sights on Global Market as Varunastra Torpedo Deliveries to Indian Navy Conclude

Following the successful completion of all Varunastra torpedo orders for the Indian Navy, Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) is actively exploring export opportunities for this indigenously developed anti-submarine weapon. In a recent interview with Bharat Shakti, Chairman of BDL A. Madhavarao confirmed that.

The Varunastra, a 533mm heavyweight torpedo, is a product of collaboration between BDL and the DRDO's Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL). With its advanced features, including an active-passive acoustic homing system, a powerful 250 kg high-explosive warhead, and selectable speed modes, the Varunastra has proven its effectiveness in anti-submarine warfare.

Having fulfilled the Indian Navy's requirements for 136 Varunastra torpedoes, BDL is now confident in the torpedo's export potential. The company believes that the Varunastra's combination of cutting-edge technology, competitive pricing, and proven performance will make it an attractive option for navies worldwide seeking to enhance their anti-submarine capabilities.

The decision to pursue exports also reflects the Indian government's broader push to promote indigenous defense products in the global market. With the Varunastra, BDL aims to showcase India's growing expertise in developing and manufacturing advanced defense technologies.

 

[Akshat]

Agreed. I haven't even added any submarines into that count, even though some of our submarines can, atleast in theory, fire the Varunastra.

Have you counted the possibility that there will be a lot of older torpedoes, plus many other type of torpedoes as well? Varunastra for now probably makes up a small fraction of the total stock. That might be one reason.

 

[Akshat]

Why do you think India is telling the truth about the quantity? What if the order is actually 5 times as much but the disclosed amount is less?

Because he is the head of a publicly listed company. He can refuse to answer if need be. But he can’t give fake data in the public. Because these numbers are used by analysts for making various projections. So you can refuse to give data, but can’t give wrong data. So whatever numbers are given are sacrosanct.

 

[Anant]

Why do you think India is telling the truth about the quantity? What if the order is actually 5 times as much but the disclosed amount is less?

Unless the torpedoes are significantly cheaper than contemporaries, the order sizes are similar to what has been stated.

 

[Anant]

Have you counted the possibility that there will be a lot of older torpedoes, plus many other type of torpedoes as well? Varunastra for now probably makes up a small fraction of the total stock. That might be one reason.

I have, but a lot of the older Type 53 torpedoes are used in our submarines as well. Moreover, as has been seen, these old torpedoes may also not be in ideal shape given their age, considering the loss of INS Sindhurakshak was due to the premature decay of explosive in one of these torpedoes.

 

[Bhishma]

The Varunastra has a 50 km range. By the time the Su-30MKI gets close enough to launch the torpedo, it would have been shot down.

Let's not try to go back to the Second World War period and re-invent the torpedo bomber. Missiles are much more effective from aircraft.

Consider this scenario. An enemy sub spotted at 500km from Vizag. We launch a Su30 from Chennai/Vizag. It flies at about 2000kmph ie it will take about 15m to reach the sub. Lets say it takes about 5m for the fighter to get airborne. So effectively we can reach the sub in 20m. Sub can move at a max speed of 60kmph ie 20km in 20m. So the fighter is not going to be too off from the sub's original position. SMART has 50kg warhead, Varunastra has 250kg warhead. It has its advantages.

In Bay of Bengal, Indian fighters will be pretty much unchallenged. (Lets not consider the aircraft carrier scenario, thats a different topic). Or are you claiming that chinese subs carry SAMs ? So what exactly is the problem ? It seems very relevant to me.

 

[Sandeep]

Then how else do we know, we have to take everything that comes in News media, with a truck load of salt, as we can't go to Italy to enquire about that in person.

The PM didn't make a deal for the torpedo. India only agreed to establish military cooperation and production of any future purchases back again. But India made it clear that the corruption case for the black shark torpedo will continue and the investigation and penalties will still take place. Also India needed to return the 3 Augusta Westland VVIP helicopters which was another corruption case so we receive our money and the criminal investigation continues.

 

[Sandeep]

India needs to increase our production of these torpedo as there is a large requirement across our navy. At the same time we should also continue to research and improve the torpedo performance, range, sensors and seekers etc. Currently we can only use the torpedo from our naval ships but we need to develop a submarine launched Varunastra torpedo so we can use it from our submarines and not rely on foreign expensive imports. Last year they were testing a submarine launched torpedo and hopefully progress is being made so we develop one 100% indigenously using our own technology and capabilities. It's very important that we install our indigenous torpedo across all of our submarines and any future submarine purchases and our existing submarines.

 

[Anant]

Consider this scenario. An enemy sub spotted at 500km from Vizag. We launch a Su30 from Chennai/Vizag. It flies at about 2000kmph ie it will take about 15m to reach the sub. Lets say it takes about 5m for the fighter to get airborne. So effectively we can reach the sub in 20m. Sub can move at a max speed of 60kmph ie 20km in 20m. So the fighter is not going to be too off from the sub's original position. SMART has 50kg warhead, Varunastra has 250kg warhead. It has its advantages.

In Bay of Bengal, Indian fighters will be pretty much unchallenged. (Lets not consider the aircraft carrier scenario, thats a different topic). Or are you claiming that chinese subs carry SAMs ? So what exactly is the problem ? It seems very relevant to me.

Heavyweight torpedoes are generally intended for use against surface warships, with it being a generally accepted fact that you can handle a submarine with a lightweight torpedo.

Oh, and for your scenario, we would launch one or more SMART missiles at the submarine and deal with it that way. You don't need a large torpedo. Moreover, in times of war, we would be having coastal ASW assets like the ADW-SWC corvettes constantly patrolling the waters near a major base.

On top of that, if a hostile submarine were detected at some distance, we could always send a ASW helicopter or aircraft to deal with it.

Just because you have a Su-30MKI doesn't mean you have to use it. This is a corner case in many aspects. I'll repeat what I said: Don't go about re-inventing the torpedo bomber.

Now, if the Navy really feels this is a workable concept, they'll partner up with the IAF and do that, but the fact that they haven't (atleast publicly) done so sends a message.

 

[Pink Panther]

Difference is ship launched & sub launched..

You are correct, Varunastra is ship launched and not Submarine launched, Navy is still on the lookout for a submarine launched Heavy Torpedo and that’s where Black-shark comes into play.

 

[Pink Panther]

Agreed. I haven't even added any submarines into that count, even though some of our submarines can, atleast in theory, fire the Varunastra.

Scorpenes can’t, these are the only somewhat new Submarines we have, they are currently toothless.

 

[Pink Panther]

73+63 = 136.
Too few to arm all warships and patrol boats.
Order in hundreds to safeguard Indian warships and stop the export business talks until the right numbers reached.

Also India badly needs torpedoes for Scorpene submarines.
They are originally hard-wired for Italian Blackshark torpedoes so PM should do something during his upcoming visit to Italy during G7 meeting there.

Yes they currently can’t be used in wars, they are only used by the Navy for admiration and self motivation that they have foreign submarines.

 

[INDIAN]

Many global heavy torpedo's having 40+km range, BDL should develop new advance versions of Varunastra with higher range and speed.

 

[Ajath Shri]

Major problem here: The numbers don't add up in a sensible manner.

The Varunastra is used by the Visakhapatnam-, Kolkata-, Delhi-, and Rajput-class destroyers, the Nilgiri-, and Talwar-class frigates, and the Kamorta-class corvettes. That comes to a grand total of 156 torpedo tubes. Even if we do not count the Rajputs, that comes to 141 torpedo tubes for the Varunastra.

The two orders mentioned here add up to 136 torpedoes. Does this mean we do not even have enough torpedoes to fill all our torpedo tubes? What about reserves? If this hasn't been factored in (by some miracle), that needs to be done asap, and sufficient reserves need to be built up.

You can't wait for torpedo deliveries in times of war. Just look at the US wait for the Mk 14 torpedo in WW2.

I personally feel VARUN ASTRA should have been modified to fire away from Indian SUBS. And the range to be in excess of 40 Plus.
Also the current orders from Indian Navy is absymal. A minimum order value of 300 units would have been good .

 

[Ajath Shri]

Have you counted the possibility that there will be a lot of older torpedoes, plus many other type of torpedoes as well? Varunastra for now probably makes up a small fraction of the total stock. That might be one reason.

Ideally the older ones can be scrapped or possibly used for training purpose.

 

[Ajath Shri]

The PM didn't make a deal for the torpedo. India only agreed to establish military cooperation and production of any future purchases back again. But India made it clear that the corruption case for the black shark torpedo will continue and the investigation and penalties will still take place. Also India needed to return the 3 Augusta Westland VVIP helicopters which was another corruption case so we receive our money and the criminal investigation continues.

The ban on the manufacturer of BLACK SHARK Torpedos was removed . Also ban on DENEL Gun manufacturer is also removed. They can participate in any tender. But as you rightly said India is yet to place any order with these companies.

 

[Anant]

I personally feel VARUN ASTRA should have been modified to fire away from Indian SUBS. And the range to be in excess of 40 Plus.
Also the current orders from Indian Navy is absymal. A minimum order value of 300 units would have been good .

True, but we just got an article about a further HWT that has completed development and is about to start trials, called the Takshak. That would also justify the limited order size for the Varunastra.

 

[Anant]

Scorpenes can’t, these are the only somewhat new Submarines we have, they are currently toothless.

If push comes to shove, we still have the SUT torpedoes. Oh, and considering the article that just came out on the Takshak HWT (a further development of the Varunastra now awaiting trials), that could well be capable of being fired from the Scorpenes.

 

[Akshat]

Ideally the older ones can be scrapped or possibly used for training purpose.

That would cost money. We don’t have enough of it.

 

[Deepak Hegde]

Agreed. I haven't even added any submarines into that count, even though some of our submarines can, atleast in theory, fire the Varunastra.

I doubt Anant. The Varunastra was specifically designed to be ship launched. I doubt if the dimensions fit the torpedo tubes for the subs. To make it more complicated, we have three types of subs, Russian, German and French. The torpedo dimensions for each one of them are different. To make it worse, when we designed it, we probably did not even do the designing to fit even any one particular type of sub (I am not sure on this though)

 

[RalphRearden]

I will write a public apology the day they "export" even a single unit!

If anyone actually cares about the details.....its a good weapon in itself, but lags behind the ones offered by the west and Russia by at least a decade...both in tech and in specifications....So they may end up selling to an African/LAtin American nation on the line of credit extended by GOI....but likelihood of that happening is remote

 

[NSR]

Very true, Sir. Very true.
However, the ASW-SWC and the NGOPVs will not carry these heavyweight torpedoes. The ASW-SWC will carry lightweight TAL Shyena torpedoes, while the NGOPVs will not carry ASW torpedoes at all.

That said, we do have the NGMV and NGC corvettes, Project 17B frigates, MRSV, and other projects in the pipeline, besides all our current and planned submarines (which I haven't even factored into the calculations yet since it isn't entirely clear which of our submarines can fit the Varunastra).

Unless there is some new variant in the works which is expected to be procured in significantly larger numbers, we probably need to scale up our inventory by 6-10 times.

I remember reading a story about India sending some kind of submarine torpedoes for testing in France Naval Systems torpedo testing facility.
Perhaps they developed a modified version of Varunastra for Scorpene submarines.

I personally prefer that PM ask Italian PM to bury all the past armemtns scandals on a win-win and no one loses deal to cover all those scandals.
And then PM should resurrect the old Blackshark torpedo contract with the more latest Advanced Blackshark torpedo, and then make a joint research and development of $25 millions each to develop even more advanced next generation torpedoes on 50:50 IP and TOT sharings like Brahmos missile.
Both countries and navies will benefit this way.

Also, India can build very sophisticated next generation Naval radars for Indian warships after buying some and investing to develop together like Blackshark.

Italian FREMM Frigates are world class so they can provide some knowhow for our Indian next generation P-18 Destroyer and Frages warships.

Win-win will make Italian PM to move forward quickly as their economy is in dire situation.

My two paisa worth.

 

[Sandeep]

The ban on the manufacturer of BLACK SHARK Torpedos was removed . Also ban on DENEL Gun manufacturer is also removed. They can participate in any tender. But as you rightly said India is yet to place any order with these companies.

The ban was removed and they can now apply for tenders. But the main important point is that the company doesn’t get a free pass on their previous corruption deal and the criminal investigation isn’t stopped or delayed.