Germany Lobbies for India's Submarine Project
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Germany is hopeful in bagging multi-billion-dollar Indian submarine project for building six conventional submarines, says a PTI report.
German Ambassador to India Michael Steiner said the P-75(I) project was under discussion and that the matter also came up during German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen's visit here last month.
He said that the talk did not specify the modalities of the deal on whether this should be Business-to-Business or Government-to -Government.
According to Michael his minister said that it was a clear sign that there is potential for cooperation in this field (defence) and also in the field of submarines.
German defence major TKMS is offering India its HDW Class 214 vessel and is in talks with leading shipyards in the country for a tie-up.
Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had set up a special committee for the project to identify the shipyards in the country that have the capability and the capacity to build the six submarines. These shipyards will then tie-up with a foreign firm.
India accounts for almost 15 percent of global defense imports and German arms exporters are looking to profit from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” defense procurement initiative.
Earlier, the Der Spiegel reported that Germany and India are already in discreet talks over the possible acquisition of six small German Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS) diesel-electric submarines, equipped with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems, for a total cost of $ 11 billion. The subs would be built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) in Kiel.