Strengthening the cooperation between India and Germany, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems has signed a key contract worth 35 million Euros (approx. Rs. 250 billion) for the upgrade of Indian Navy’s two Shishumar class submarines to fire Harpoon anti-submarine counter measure missiles. The retrofit of the new weapon suite will be carried out in two of the four SSK submarines (INS Shishumar, Shankush, Shalki and Shankul) at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai and is backed by a training package to support and operate the system.

Dr Gurnad Sodhi, Managing Director of Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems’ operations in India, said, “It is a key milestone in our long-standing commitment towards India. We have the capacity to integrate any weapon system that is selected by the Indian Navy onto our submarines. We have successfully carried out such integration on similar boats for other navies across the world. We are happy to take on this project to now integrate the harpoon missiles in two of the four SSK submarines.”

Dr Sodhi said that Thyssenkrupp is also ready to integrate any weapon system, including BrahMos onto the latest 214 class Submarines for the upcoming project P-75(I) project. “We fully support the ‘Make and Made in India’ policy which would encompass inter-alia transfer of technology (ToT), training and meeting all offset obligations. We are awaiting the government’s decision on the Strategic Partner chapter of the new DPP 2016, after which we will begin our negotiations with an Indian shipyard for the P-75(I)”, he added.

Cooperation between the Indian Navy and Thyssenkrupp dates backs to more than three decades. The existing HDW class 209/1500 submarines have been performing well, without any inherent problems; and the Indian Navy has been satisfied with their performance, despite their vintage. The German submarine manufacturer has been providing full, uninterrupted logistics support to the Indian Navy for the same, in terms of spares and components for these boats.