The fifth Scorpene conventional submarine, Vagir, being built by the Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) with technology transfer from France was launched into water on Thursday.
“The fifth of the Indian Navy’s Kalvari class submarines of Project 75 has been launched on November 12 at the Kanhoji Angre wet basin of MDL,” the Navy said in a statement. The ceremony took place through videoconferencing.
Work would now commence on Vagir for setting various equipment before proceeding with harbour acceptance trials, the Navy said. “The crew will subsequently sail the submarine for the sea-acceptance trials, after which the submarine would be delivered to the Navy”
The first two submarines of Project-75 have been commissioned into the Navy and the third and fourth ones are in various stages of sea trials.
The MDL is manufacturing six Scorpene submarines with technology assistance from Naval Group of France under a $3.75 bn deal signed in October 2005. The first one, Kulvari, was commissioned in 2018 and delivery of all the six is expected to be completed by 2022.
Mission Sagar-II
As part of the Indian Navy’s Mission Sagar-II, which was on, INS Airavat delivered food aid to Djibouti at a ceremony on Wednesday, the Navy said.
Mission Sagar-II is a follow-up of ‘Mission Sagar’, undertaken in May-June 2020, during which India delivered food and medicines to Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros. Under Mission Sagar-II, INS Airavat had delivered 100 tonnes of food aid to Sudan and later to Eritrea.
