TNN
New Delhi, Jan 11 (mb): The collision of an Indian attack submarine, INS Sindhugosh, with a large foreign-owned cargo ship in the Arabian Sea last Monday could have meant a cold watery grave for the 53 sailors on board the underwater vessel.
If a submarine becomes disabled deep under water, or sinks to the bottom, the Indian navy simply does not have adequate submarine rescue facilities to help trapped sailors.
The long-pending project to procure two deep-submergence rescue vessels (DSRVs), which was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security in November 2002, is still to fructify.
Even the interim measure worked out through the 1997 contract with US Navy for its "global submarine rescue fly-away kit" service, for which India made an initial payment of $734,443, is still not fully operational.
Fortunately, all sailors aboard the 2,500-tonne INS Sindhugosh are safe and sound. The 41,880-tonne merchant vessel Leeds Castle, only gave a glancing blow to the submarine, which was at "periscope depth" at around 15-20 feet, off the Diu coast at around 1.30 pm on January 7.
"The submarine was around 140 nautical miles north-west of Mumbai for a fleet-level exercise with other warships. It was probably surfacing when the merchant vessel passed over it," said an officer.
"With the submarine returning to Mumbai early on Wednesday under its own propulsion and power, a board of inquiry has been ordered into the accident. The masts (periscope, radar and communication antennae) and the bridge have been damaged but its hull or water-tight integrity remained unaffected," he added.
Be that as it may, the mishap of the Russian-origin INS Sindhugosh is a major embarrassment for the Navy. The last major accident of a warship was the sinking of the 450-tonne missile corvette, INS Prahar, near the Goa coast after a collision with merchant vessel MV Rajiv Gandhi in April 2006.
While it's true that submarine operations on the western coast are dicey because of heavy shipping congestion
as well as relatively shallow waters compared to the eastern seaboard, the latest incident points to a serious error of judgment. INS Sindhugosh, commanded by commander Narendra Kumar at present, was the first of the 10 Kilo-class submarines to be inducted in 1986.
It underwent a major modernisation upgrade in Russia in 2005, which included equipping it with lethal Klub-S cruise missiles, apart from new sonars, electronic warfare systems and automated integrated weapon control systems.
Consequently, it's among the only five of the existing 16 diesel-electric submarines in India's underwater combat fleet to be armed with cruise missiles. Even as the Navy plans to enhance its underwater arm, with the slated induction of six submarines between 2012 and 2017 under the gigantic Rs 18,798-crore Scorpene project, it continues to have primitive rescue facilities.
That this can prove lethal for disabled vessels trapped deep under the sea was brought home by the accident of Russian nuclear submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea in August 2000, which led to the slow death of the 118 sailors on board.