India issues RFI for air-dropped anti-submarine munitions

The Indian Navy plan to purchase air-dropped, anti-submarine munitions in order to strengthen its anti-submarine capability. It is considered by strategic analysts as an obvious move given that Chinese and Pakistani Navies are heavily dependent on submarines as part of their Naval warfare doctrines. The MoD has issued a request to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and vendors for information on such bombs, which could be used by Navy's fixed-wing aircraft. "The defence ministry intends to procure air-dropped underwater bombs for fixed wing aircraft, to be used as an urgent attack weapon against submarines. The bomb should be capable of being dropped from an aircraft for engaging a submarine in deep waters as well as those on surface and periscope depths" "We also are looking for bombs that could be launched from rotary wing (helicopters) platform too. The bombs should have sufficient high explosive to destroy target submarine at proximity distance. The conventional warheads' shelf-life should be about 30 years." "We require the practice version to validate and train the air crew in bomb drop procedures. These versions will be reusable."