Indian Navy may drop VLS plan for Project-75I submarines

Source : IgMp Bureau

Submarine VLS (Representative Image)

Indian Navy may likely drop the VLS plan for Project-75I submarines. Indian navy might procure six next-generation conventional attack submarines without a vertical launching system (VLS) plug added to the submarines that are on offer under the Project-75I tender. As the focus now shifts to the development of nuclear attack submarines (SSN) that are already under design and development by the Directorate of Naval Design. 

While there is no clear official reasoning behind this decision but most of the submarines other than South Korea's KSS3 submarine, didn't have a vertical launching system section, and adding a plug to the existing design might have complicated center of buoyancy and could have required redesigning of the submarine

Project-75I submarines originally were to have a VLS section from where Submarine Launched Cruise Missile like Brahmos and the naval variant of ITCM and Nilbhay were planned but now DRDO and the Indian Navy have agreed to instead develop Long-Range Land Attack Cruise Missiles (LACMs), and Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles (ASCMs) that can be launched from torpedo tubes of the conventional attack submarines.

DRDO will start developmental trials of the torpedo launched SLCM from 2023 that will be equipped on both project 75 and project 75I submarines. The vertical launching system (VLS) will now feature on the six nuclear attack submarines that are already under design by the Indian Navy's Directorate of Naval Design that will be used to launch the naval variant of Brahmos-NG and nearby missile as well as the land attack and anti-ship variant of hypersonic cruise missile under development.

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