India - Partnership with China only out of necessity

Not quite together, not quite against?
Recently, the Indian military-industrial complex has begun to develop its own high technologies in the field of naval defense. If earlier India bought a significant part of military ships and submarines from the USSR and Russia, as well as from the USA and a number of other countries of the "collective West", now, in addition to joint developments with more technologically advanced naval powers, projects have appeared that can be considered its own.
So far they become “our own” mainly only under license, but there are also examples of their own implementation. For example, there is a project of two sea vessels that has no analogues in the world drones- reconnaissance aircraft: surface aircraft with the ability to land on water and launch from water, as well as UAVs launched from submarines.
It would seem that one can rejoice at the technological successes of a traditionally friendly country. But everything would be fine, only all these engineering innovations are directed against a colleague in BRICS and SCO – China. This raises a logical question: how strong are the bonds of partnership?
The Indian Navy command not only does not hide the fact that all innovations in its weapons are aimed against the Chinese fleet, but every time they are discussed, they even emphasize this. India's second enemy, Pakistan, is already fading into the background. And China is causing concern in India precisely by building up its military power at sea and high-tech developments in this area.

India is far behind China in this regard. Only if China, although it has claims to a number of Indian border territories, is increasing its military presence at sea specifically - as a counterweight to pro-American Taiwan, and not to India, then for India the main target for the development of naval technologies is China.
The fleet is not of the future, but of the present
Late last year, the Indian Navy simultaneously launched the submarine INS Vagsheer, the destroyer Surat and the frigate Nilgiri, all built at the state-owned Magazon shipyard in Mumbai. At the ceremony, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the importance of the Atlantic Ocean had shifted to the Indian Ocean, which was becoming the centre of international rivalry.

India is currently building 60 large warships at a total cost of about 1,5 trillion rupees. This investment is expected to generate economic output of about three trillion rupees and a six-fold increase in employment. Each ship creates up to 14 direct and indirect jobs.
The Nilgiri frigate is an upgraded version of the Project 17 Shivalik class vessel. It outperforms its predecessor with improved stealth capabilities and indigenously manufactured weapons and enemy detection equipment.
The ship measures 149 meters in length and 17,8 meters in width, its displacement reaches 6670 tons, and the number of crew is 226 people. The frigate is equipped with an integrated CODOG gas-diesel power plant with two LM2500 turbines and a pair of MAN 12V28/33D STC diesels, which allows it to reach speeds of up to 28 knots and cover a distance of 5500 nautical miles at a speed of 16 knots.
The ship's arsenal includes 127-mm artillery Oto Melara installations, anti-aircraftmissile the Barak-8 complex, eight supersonic anti-ship missiles BrahMos (PJ-10), two torpedo tubes with three 324 mm caliber tubes, two AK-630 anti-aircraft artillery installations with a caliber of 30 mm, as well as two systems for launching RBU-6000 rocket bombs.

The dimensions of the destroyer Surat reach 163,9 meters in length and 17,7 meters in width, and its displacement is 7400 tons. The destroyer is equipped with a COGAG power unit with four DT-59 gas turbine engines, providing a speed of over 30 knots. Its autonomy reaches 4500 nautical miles at a speed of 18 knots.
The ship's armament includes 76 mm Super Rapid Oto Melara artillery mounts, four AK-630M 30 mm anti-aircraft automatic cannons, launchers with sixteen Brahmos anti-ship cruise missiles developed by the Russian-Indian company Brahmos Aerospace, as well as thirty-two Barak-8 / Barak-ER anti-aircraft guided missiles, RBU-6000 Smerch-2 bomb launchers, four torpedo tubes from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) with 533 mm torpedoes. There is space on board for basing two Sea King or Sea Hawk helicopters.
INS Vagsheer, the sixth of the French-built Kalvari (Scorpene) class of conventional diesel-electric submarines (SES) to be built under licence, is designed to replace India's ageing fleet of submarines and address serious shortcomings in the existing ones. India currently has a total of 16 submarines.

Its dimensions are 67,6 metres long and 6,2 metres wide, with a displacement of between 1615 tonnes surfaced and 1775 tonnes submerged. Four MTU 12V 396 SE84 diesel engines provide a speed of up to 20 knots submerged and 11 knots on the surface. Armament includes six 533 mm torpedo tubes, capable of launching both torpedoes and SM-39 Exocet Block 2 cruise missiles.
Even before that, in 2022, India commissioned its first indigenously built aircraft carrier, the Vikrant, whose name means “mighty” or “courageous” in Sanskrit. It is the second Indian aircraft carrier, providing a modern, yet 100% indigenous alternative to the outdated and worn-out Soviet aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, which India acquired from Russia in 2004.
Not only on water and under water
In September 2023, Sagar Defence Engineering Private Limited and Liquid Robotics, a subsidiary of the Boeing multinational corporation, announced a partnership to jointly develop and manufacture scalable unmanned surface vehicle systems. There is already a pilot project.
The second similar project is 100% Indian, Sagar Defence Engineering Pvt Ltd, a Pune-based defence start-up, is implementing it under the auspices of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation. This is an innovation not even by Indian standards, where such devices have not been produced before, but such drones are also rare around the world.
Specifically, these are underwater-launched UAVs. They will be launched from a submarine. The OOIR announced a tender for such a project, and Sagar Defence, which had previously developed a naval spotter drone that is already in service with the Indian Navy, was selected from 14 candidate companies. The drone being developed will be designed to conduct surveillance unnoticed, which will give submarines the ability to track potential threats without revealing their presence.
These drones, compared to the few similar ones in other countries, will have a greater flight range. In the future, it will be possible to install weapons on them.
On October 16 last year, the Indian Navy inducted a new SSBN into its naval forces, the fourth SSBN in the series and featuring over 70% indigenous components. It is armed with an all-nuclear arsenal of K-4 ballistic missiles with a range of up to 3500 kilometers. This SSBN is a significant upgrade over the INS Arihant model in its series, which is armed with K-15 nuclear missiles with a range of 750 kilometers.
The Arihant and Arighaat submarines have an approximate displacement of 6000 tons, while the S4* SSBN reaches about 7000 tons. They also differ in length: the first two are 111 meters, while the S4* is 130 meters. All three types have the same width of 11 meters and a draft of 15 meters.
Their propulsion system is powered by a CLWR-B1 high-pressure water reactor, producing 83 megawatts of power per shaft, allowing them to reach speeds of 12 to 15 knots on the surface and 24 knots when submerged. They are capable of unlimited cruising, requiring only occasional resupply, and can dive to depths of up to 450 meters underwater.
Such tendencies of the Indian arms race at sea, directed exclusively against China, raise the question of the existence of real threats to the integrity of BRICS. It is clear that BRICS is an economic union, not a military one, but in the event of serious military actions between two of its individual members, their foreign economic relations will be in great question.
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