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Saturday, August 29, 2009

No deal for French submarines under way

The Ministry of Defense Production said on Saturday it was not purchasing French submarines in place of those manufactured by Germany.Briefing Senate’s Standing Committee on Defence and Defence Production, Defence Production Secretary Israr Ghumman said an evaluation committee formed by the Naval Headquarters had recommended purchase of German submarines.

He told the meeting, presided over by Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, that the government had not signed any agreement with French authorities as reported in the media. Senator Raja Zafarul Haq told that committee had been informed that several submarine-making companies came up with bids but on the basis of the cost and technology German submarines had been preferred by the Pakistan Navy.

He said the secretary denied the government was negotiating any deal to purchase French submarines. He said the committee was following the purchase of submarines and if anybody was found involved in receiving kickbacks he would be exposed to the media.

The committee sought continuity of safeguards for the Pakistan Ordnance Factories, Heavy Mechanical Industries and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex which were set up through an ordinance and validated through 17th Constitutional Amendment.

The committee observed that funding system of vital defence organisations needed to be reviewed to make them financially strong and administratively more effective. Minister for Defence Production Abdul Qayyum Khan Jatoi, Jan Mohammad Jamali, Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, Tahir Mashhadi and Hajid Adeel attended the meeting.

7 comments:

That should settle all doubts. But given previous reports it will take 64 months to deliver the first U214 after signing the contract(2 years to built submarine line + 2 years construction + 1 year testing). So even if the contract is signed today the first boat will join PN in 2015. Is this soon enough given older PN subs have all crossed 30years of service? IN by 2015 will have acquired at least 3 scorpenes and perhaps 3 Arihant class. I think we should have kept open Agosta 90B production line for 2-3 more subs. 2015 is still some way off.

sir according to pshamim on pdf that there is on going negotiations on one greek u 214 i think her name is papanapolis i may be wrong on name but that u boat still in germany not delivered to greeks due to non payments so we will get first u214 more quicker than 64 months so i think its total 4 subs deal also pakistan navy crew been trained in germany and there number is more than 500.

"IN by 2015 will have acquired at least 3 scorpenes and perhaps 3 Arihant class."
You can have arihant into some water park at least for generating some revenue because it is not able to mbark upon on a single military mission. It have no power plat. I am serious, it is a good toy for kids amusement park.

Nobody said Arihant doesn't have a nuclear reactor, just not an active one. In other words "not critical yet". Since the test reactor has been running for 3 years, propulsion is hardly an issue. jealousy is not going to stop Arihant. Accept the fact the sub is commencing testing phase. PN U214 are not even signed yet. Besides if IN selects Russian Amur or its Russian-Italian derivative then IN can even start the second sub production line(besides scorpene) before u214 production gets underway in Pakistan. Hindustan shipyard has already acquired Russian production facilities under the Arihant project. This is apparent from the similarity Arihant conning tower has with that of Lada.

So, in other words you are saying that Hindustan shipyard used Russian production facilities for the Arihant project. That means Arihant is a russian product, not an Indian one. Is that true? Your claim is that the nuclear power reactor is installed on Arihant but it is not critical yet. The news report however indicated the power plant is not availble on Arihant. Whay was the power plant not even started? Getting criticality is much later stage.

The Indian PM has already thanked the Russians for their support in the Arihant program, I need not add to that.
The dumb press is a little confused because of tight lipped BARC scientist. First the press reported that a functional reactor like the "half sub" shown to them was on arihant. When the scientist corrected them that "its incorrect that a functional reactor is on the sub" the press took it as "no reactor".
Since the reactor section called the "half sub" is 42m long, you cannot build the sub without it. The sub is built in prefabricated sections (some 10 of them) stuffed and loaded with equipment and then welded together.
Arihant needs to undergo structural and integrity test before the reactor will be activated. Since this is the first nuclear sub its tests would be prolonged.
However it has been reported that 2 other subs are in the pipeline and would follow relatively quickly.

Leave alone installing a reactor a nuclear sub cannot even be fueled once its hull has been welded together. In fact refueling a nuclear sub is a messy process requiring the sub to be cut open into half. If one is to believe that Arihant has no propulsion, that would mean the rear half of the sub is a hollow shell. That would create such a weight imbalance that the damn thing will sink head first as soon as it hits warer. Only DDM has the imagination to weld hollow sections together.
In all its probability Arihant not only has its propulsion in place but is also fueled to go.
Here is the propulsion "half sub" of Arihant.

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