Germany Offers India Government-To-Government Deal for Submarine Purchase

Germany is offering a government-to-government deal for its new generation conventional submarines with underwater endurance to India.

The HDW 214 submarines are being offered as a special case for Indian Navy’s P75i submarine project which involves manufacturing six of them at an estimated cost of over $9 billion, Economic Times reported Friday.

The formal proposal is being shared with the defense ministry in which the German government will give assurances of fair price, technology and quality, ET reported quoting unnamed sources as saying.

India is eyeing Air Independent Propulsions (AIP) enabling the submarines to remain underwater for longer period of time. Other than Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), Russian Rosoboronexport and French DCNS submarine companies are also competing for the P75i project.

"The offer has certain assurances that the product will meet Indian requirements," an official involved in the process told ET. Russia, which is developing its own AIP system, has already advised India to conclude the P 75I project under a government deal as it has too many complexities of technology transfer.

TKMS that manufactures the submarine said it "is not in a position to comment on talks between the governments of the two nations", but said it was interested in offering its 214 class boats with "robust transfer of technology, training and meeting offset obligations". "We define this as a 'no-holds barred' transfer of technology in line with Modi government's 'Make in India' push," the company spokesperson told ET.