India's Two New SSNs to Boast 10,000-Ton Displacement, 40% Bigger Than Similar Chinese Type 093 Shang-class Subs Deployed in IOR

NEW DELHI – India's ambitious nuclear attack submarine program has taken a significant leap forward with the recent Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approval for the construction of two new SSNs.

Reports from Times of India indicate these submarines will displace nearly 10,000 tons, making them substantially larger and potentially more capable than previously estimated.

This places them in the same league as the US Navy's formidable Virginia-class Block V submarines and significantly ahead of China's Type 093 Shang-class SSNs currently deployed in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

These new submarines will be 40% larger than China's Type 093s, which displace around 6,400 tons. This size advantage translates to increased endurance, allowing for longer patrols and potentially greater weapons payload.

Experts believe the submarines will be equipped with Vertical Payload Tubes (VPTs) capable of housing a variety of advanced weaponry, including subsonic cruise missiles like the Nirbhay and potentially hypersonic cruise missiles currently under development, such as Project Vishnu HCM or BrahMos-2K.

The ability to deploy hypersonic missiles, which travel at speeds exceeding Mach 5, would give India a significant edge in both offensive and defensive capabilities within the region.

These missiles are extremely difficult to intercept, providing a credible deterrent and enhancing India's first-strike options. In addition to cruise missiles, the submarines will also be armed with heavyweight torpedoes for both anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare.

India's focus on developing a robust and technologically advanced submarine fleet is seen as a direct response to China's growing naval presence in the IOR.

Beijing has been increasingly assertive in the region, deploying its own nuclear submarines and surface vessels. These new Indian SSNs, with their enhanced capabilities and advanced stealth technology, are expected to play a crucial role in maintaining India's naval dominance in the region.

The development of these 10,000-ton nuclear attack submarines also sets the stage for India's next-generation S5 class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). Projected to displace 13,000 tons, the S5 will follow the S4 and S4* SSBNs, which have a 7,000-ton displacement.

Both the SSN and S5 programs will utilize 190 MW pressurized water reactors (PWR) and feature modern pump-jet propulsion systems for enhanced quiet operation.

 

[R. Singh]

Good ! Our defence think tank should make 10 such SSNs and restart new Sindhghosh class SSN series ! If China is making 10+ ACs we should make 20+ SSNs !

 

[Adi pat]

Certainly this is the way forward, but why new power plant, one can use two of earlier one to improve redundancy and long term standardization and larger economy of scale

 

[tipoo2]

Put the navy in charge of IAF procurement please lol

 

[Vijay Anand]

Good development. But please plan the project so that no delays happen 🙏

By the way, Is the green light in front of sub, Kryptonite?? 😅

 

[ramdas]

Venturing into uncharted waters all alone may take a decade or more to build SSN with such capacity and capabilities. Why only 2, increase the numbers now itself as Chinese are going to counter it.

 

[Rational Guy]

Venturing into uncharted waters all alone may take a decade or more to build SSN with such capacity and capabilities. Why only 2, increase the numbers now itself as Chinese are going to counter it.

Navy wants 2nd air craft carrier too they can't get both SSN and AC at the same time!

 

[Leo red]

How to compare in quantity or quality.
we are far behind in quantity. Our 60% border is ocean. And our 40% fleet is just near to retirement. Still whatever we got is acceptable not enough. Atleast we should have large fleet of autonomous swarn sub drones and boats like iran. Cost effective solution. And lots of long range cruise and hypersonic missiles.

 

[siva]

First let us start the work, now only in paper, we had seen so many like this.

 

[NSR]

Agree about outclassing about criminal china submarines.

But there is no way that India can rival any nuclear submarine technologies anytime soon.
It is a real fact that USA and Russians are the top two nuclear submarine honchos.

 

[Anant]

Highly doubtful. I am not going to trust news sources claiming to have an 'in' on the nuclear submarine program. A lot of people don't realise just how secretive the SSN and SSBN programs are. Until Arihant's launch in 2009 and satellite imagery of Visakhapatnam harbour, very few people knew of the program's existence. Even so, Arihant's specifications were only known about around 2012, when she was first spotted by satellite imagery.

Moreover, given our lacking budgets, I personally find it difficult to believe we will go for such large SSNs, given these will be our first SSNs too. My opinion is that the Project 77 boats will simply be a modified Arihant hull with the SLBM section either removed or replaced with a VLS module for SLCMs.

Regardless, nothing can be said for sure until we actually see the boat, which won't be around 2030 or so at the earliest.

 

[Anant]

How to compare in quantity or quality.
we are far behind in quantity. Our 60% border is ocean. And our 40% fleet is just near to retirement. Still whatever we got is acceptable not enough. Atleast we should have large fleet of autonomous swarn sub drones and boats like iran. Cost effective solution. And lots of long range cruise and hypersonic missiles.

Swarm drones are good mostly for targetting merchant ships and the like. Against a protracted naval deployment, these drone swarms are at a massive disadvantage. Moreover, Iran and India have different strategic outlooks, so what works for them will not exactly work for us.

 

[Anant]

Venturing into uncharted waters all alone may take a decade or more to build SSN with such capacity and capabilities. Why only 2, increase the numbers now itself as Chinese are going to counter it.

Because funding is an issue. We have seen 2 SSNs getting cleared now. There is a pretty decent chance IAC-II will be cleared in 2025. That should be followed by two more submarines getting cleared around 2028-29, with the last two in 2033-34.

 

[Mithu Roy]

The advantage navy had over IAF in procurement is for sub India got akula design with reactor technology from the Russians.Akula are follow on sub for Charlie class.
that is why navy is so confident.
For IAF the problem is with engines.
even Russians didn't give their TOT.
Engines are the most priced items of the defence industry and no one will give

 

[Shiva]

May be after this 10,000 ton class submarine deploymet, China will feel the heat and accept India also as a super power on par with it and will acknowledge it and accept giving permanent member to India in UN.

If not, then India will screw China after its next version. he he.

 

[beencensured]

Highly doubtful. I am not going to trust news sources claiming to have an 'in' on the nuclear submarine program. A lot of people don't realise just how secretive the SSN and SSBN programs are. Until Arihant's launch in 2009 and satellite imagery of Visakhapatnam harbour, very few people knew of the program's existence. Even so, Arihant's specifications were only known about around 2012, when she was first spotted by satellite imagery.

Moreover, given our lacking budgets, I personally find it difficult to believe we will go for such large SSNs, given these will be our first SSNs too. My opinion is that the Project 77 boats will simply be a modified Arihant hull with the SLBM section either removed or replaced with a VLS module for SLCMs.

Regardless, nothing can be said for sure until we actually see the boat, which won't be around 2030 or so at the earliest.

Same condescending attitude typical of arms lobbyists. Well, let see what they make.

 

[beencensured]

May be after this 10,000 ton class submarine deploymet, China will feel the heat and accept India also as a super power on par with it and will acknowledge it and accept giving permanent member to India in UN.

If not, then India will screw China after its next version. he he.

They will only feel heat when they cannot detect it in South China Sea.

 

[Anant]

The advantage navy had over IAF in procurement is for sub India got akula design with reactor technology from the Russians.Akula are follow on sub for Charlie class.
that is why navy is so confident.
For IAF the problem is with engines.
even Russians didn't give their TOT.
Engines are the most priced items of the defence industry and no one will give

Um, not quite. The Akula-class had very little to do with the Charlie-class SSGNs.

Now, while it is speculated that we got reactor technology from the Russians, what seems to have been the case (as reported even by a few Russian sources) was that Russia advised us in reactor development, and certified the whole thing. However, the reactor itself was built to an Indian design and Indian standards in India.

Moreover, India never received the Akula design. Just because we operated an Akula-class boat doesn't mean we got the detailed design documentation, though some basic documents may have been acquired at some point.

The Navy's confidence has less to do with them being handed everything and more to do with their inherent confidence that they can do well with indigenous work. Since 1950, the Navy has been the least funded of the Armed Forces, and what that means is that the Navy has essentially learnt how to get a good force on a tight budget, coming with up with some very innovative ideas as a result. The success of said ideas has also built a lot of confidence that the Navy can now draw on.

 

[Anant]

Same condescending attitude typical of arms lobbyists. Well, let see what they make.

And pray tell what exactly was condescending in my comment?

The ATV program was highly secretive. That's a fact. We have a habit of being somewhat conservative when we build a certain type of warship for the first time. That is also a fact. The SSN program is highly secretive, and no major information leak has happened. That is yet another fact. We also have a lot of budgetary constraints. That is another fact still. You can't logically dispute any of that without a suitable counter-example.

The rest of the comment is my opinion (as stated). If you want to dispute that, be my guest, but atleast have the decency to maybe give your opinion ot state where you feel I am wrong? Or do you want to just look like an imbecile who randomly keeps disagreeing without any stance of their own?

 

[Sudha]

WOW!! Astounding piece of news on paper while in performance.... well we all know about performance. MDL is what HAL is, inefficient. Hope the naval planners will keep a decade of buffer in cost escalation as well as delivery dates for delivery delays by MDL & plan accordingly.

 

[Sudha]

How to compare in quantity or quality.
we are far behind in quantity. Our 60% border is ocean. And our 40% fleet is just near to retirement. Still whatever we got is acceptable not enough. Atleast we should have large fleet of autonomous swarn sub drones and boats like iran. Cost effective solution. And lots of long range cruise and hypersonic missiles.

A good suggestion. Underwater drones works out cheaper as well as naval personnels life will not be a question.

 

[Sudha]

Good development. But please plan the project so that no delays happen 🙏

By the way, Is the green light in front of sub, Kryptonite?? 😅

Your "please" will not work with MDL.

 

[Sudha]

Same condescending attitude typical of arms lobbyists. Well, let see what they make.

What a condescending comment without any basis. It is a typical anti national attitude fully knowing that security wise Bharat is in a weak position where fighters & subs are concerned. He is right except the awareness of making of a nuke sub by India. ATV was really a open secret for a long time (couple of decades) which made US pressurise Russia not to collaborate.

 

[Akshat]

Put the navy in charge of IAF procurement please lol

First let them deal with HAL and ADA and see the results, then suggest such things.

Oh wait…Navy has dealt with them. And what was the result? NLCA was canceled. And in NUH where Navy didn’t want to involve HAL, they butted their way in and even the prototype hasn’t been seen in many years. And due to their promise of delivery of Tedbf, Navybhad to more than halve their order for Rafale M.

So even the navy can’t deal with them and get something useful.

 

[AK S]

First let them deal with HAL and ADA and see the results, then suggest such things.

Oh wait…Navy has dealt with them. And what was the result? NLCA was canceled. And in NUH where Navy didn’t want to involve HAL, they butted their way in and even the prototype hasn’t been seen in many years. And due to their promise of delivery of Tedbf, Navybhad to more than halve their order for Rafale M.

So even the navy can’t deal with them and get something useful.

It’s really interesting how nervous Frenchie are. In SSN article they talk about HAL.

IF so, shed some light on the French role in cost and schedule escalation in Mirage upgrade and Scorpene development or recently revealed 7 years needed for integration of Indian Radars on Rafale M. Add to it 5 years and $1.5B by Dassault for delivering first Rafale with all of India specific entrancements. Our DPSUs have proven to be lot more efficient than your venerable Dassault.

By the way, tell us how many Rafales your venerableDassault delivered thus far this year .. 7 oh … could be 8 too. Amazing. You control entire ecosystem and with a much larger installed capacity. Compare it with HAL a DPSU and stuck with engine non-delivery.

 

[Akshat]

Venturing into uncharted waters all alone may take a decade or more to build SSN with such capacity and capabilities. Why only 2, increase the numbers now itself as Chinese are going to counter it.

You will have to allocate resources right now. So once the first one is near completion, extend the order by another 2. There is also the possibility that it may not be good enough and significant modifications are needed.

 

[AK S]

Your "please" will not work with MDL.

It didn’t work with French Naval Group in case of Scorpene.

 

[Sudha]

It didn’t work with French Naval Group in case of Scorpene.

The problem was with MDL for they couldn't absorb the tech fast enough & looking at a further collaboration for P75I they didn't absorb all the tech also. Man, update your GK.

 

[AK S]

Highly doubtful. I am not going to trust news sources claiming to have an 'in' on the nuclear submarine program. A lot of people don't realise just how secretive the SSN and SSBN programs are. Until Arihant's launch in 2009 and satellite imagery of Visakhapatnam harbour, very few people knew of the program's existence. Even so, Arihant's specifications were only known about around 2012, when she was first spotted by satellite imagery.

Moreover, given our lacking budgets, I personally find it difficult to believe we will go for such large SSNs, given these will be our first SSNs too. My opinion is that the Project 77 boats will simply be a modified Arihant hull with the SLBM section either removed or replaced with a VLS module for SLCMs.

Regardless, nothing can be said for sure until we actually see the boat, which won't be around 2030 or so at the earliest.

I’d tend to agree. Sub of this size will cost lot more. We have been paying close to $3B towards ten year lease of much smaller Russian SSN. Unofficially we might be paying for Russian nuclear submarine tech transfer too. But still.

 

[Akshat]

It’s really interesting how nervous Frenchie are. In SSN article they talk about HAL.

IF so, shed some light on the French role in cost and schedule escalation in Mirage upgrade and Scorpene development or recently revealed 7 years needed for integration of Indian Radars on Rafale M. Add to it 5 years and $1.5B by Dassault for delivering first Rafale with all of India specific entrancements. Our DPSUs have proven to be lot more efficient than your venerable Dassault.

By the way, tell us how many Rafales your venerableDassault delivered thus far this year .. 7 oh … could be 8 too. Amazing. You control entire ecosystem and with a much larger installed capacity. Compare it with HAL a DPSU and stuck with engine non-delivery.

So you wanted Indian Navy to procure Submarines for IAF? (Since the original commentator wanted to have IN take control of IAF procurement) 😂😂😂

As for Scorpene, we all know the delays came from DRDO. Remember how they promised the AIP from first sub but then couldn’t deliver and at last they had to chop that off? In Mirage, we again had HAL involved and cause the delays, no?

As for Rafale and Uttam, they were actually doing a pretty fast job, assuming that the rumors of delivery in 7 (I heard 8 actually) were true. I mean, DRDO is targeting to complete the project for integration of AESA radar on Sukhoi in 7 years. Dassault is saying they will integrate Uttam on Rafale in 4 years (+3 years to deliver the first plane after that). And we all know DRDO has delays in every single program of theirs. So how is it even slow?

Our PSUs have caused delays and went over budget on every project. Our friend France at least doesn’t do that. See how fast and on time Rafales came with ISE.

7 or 8??? 😂😂😂 They have delivered over 12 since April itself. 😂😂😂 And unlike you, I am quoting the official figure.