Govt. Finally Nods to Rs. 1,900 crore Navy deal

The central government today has finally given a nod to the pending Rs. 1,900 crore deal for the Navy to obtain 2 Deep-Submergence Vessels (DSRVs) which  are none other than basic submarines that work with or rather ‘mate’ with ‘disabled’ submarines to help sailors those are trapped deep underwater to come out.

• According to sources, the Cabinet Committee on Security has already cleared the acquisition of the two important DSRVs from a UK-based company namely James Fisher Defence. India has been struggling with elementary level submarine rescue capabilities for more than 15 years now so it looks like with this decision, the long quest for DSRVs have finally been answered.
• The decision comes at the right time since Indian Navy is currently struggling with 13 ageing (all of them more than 20 years old) diesel-electric submarines. The DSRVs are well equipped with pressurized chambers, sonars and cameras and a single DSRV is able to rescue around 20 sailors from beneath 600 metres of water at a time. But in order to do that a DSRV has to conjoin with damaged submarine’s hatch.
• Indian Navy’s present “submarine escape pressurized suits” can be only used in comparatively lesser deep water wherein support ship INS Nireekshak can launch “bells” around a maximum 175 metres.
• India back in 1997 has signed on an agreement with the US Navy for “global submarine rescue fly-away kit” service with an initial corpus of $734,443. This agreement was used as an “interim measure” to the DSRVs.

(Source: ET)