【Military Sub-Plane】Author: Le Le
On January 18, 2022, the news that an explosion occurred on a destroyer of the Indian Navy, resulting in the deaths of at least 3 sailors, caused widespread concern from the outside world. According to a number of Indian reports, the explosion accident is likely to be caused by the use of Freon on the ship's air conditioning, and the 3 sailors killed in the accident were trapped by debris brought by the Freon explosion, which eventually led to death. The most direct impact of this explosion accident is, of course, that the outside world has once again seen some unreasonable points in the construction of personnel of the Indian army. So much so that after its Air Force crashed one MiG-21 and two MiG-17s in December 2021, resulting in the death of its Defense Department Chief of Staff, its Navy also suffered another serious casualty accident. The impact of this explosion accident on the Indian Navy is not just that 3 sailors have died and 11 have been injured.
▲ Indian media reports on the bombing of the destroyer
For now, the Indian Navy has a total of 11 destroyers, in terms of service time, near and far, one P-15B, three P-15A, three P-15 and four Rajput class. The "Ranville" that caused the explosion accident is one of the four "Rajput" class, which is one of the five destroyers introduced by the Indian Navy in the 1980s based on the Soviet "Kasin" class destroyer, of which the Third ship has been retired in 2019 due to disrepair and poor condition. The remaining four ships are scheduled to be taken over by four P-15Bs in the future, according to the Indian Navy's plan, thus ensuring the size of the destroyers.
▲ Indian "Rajput" class destroyer
However, after the explosion accident, with the state of the old ship serving for more than 40 years, it is unlikely that the Indian Navy will invest a lot of money in the transformation, and the P-15B No. 2 ship is not progressing smoothly at present, and the size of the Destroyer of the Indian Navy is bound to shrink in the case of being unable to serve in the short term, disrupting the 1:1 replacement model previously planned by the Indian Navy. More importantly, the remaining 3 "Rajput" class are also in a very poor state at present, and whether they can survive until the subsequent batch of P-15Bs can be successfully commissioned is a question worthy of debate.
The P-15B project took many years and is currently only 1 in service
Compared with the total number of launches of nearly 40 advanced models such as 052C, 052D and 055 on the mainland, the size of the Indian Navy's total of 11 destroyers cannot help but be somewhat unremarkable. But in fact, it is already a good force in the world, after all, the British Navy that resounded around the world at that time is now only 6 destroyers. Therefore, although the explosion accident occurred this time, although it is an old ship that has been in service for more than 40 years, for the Indian Navy, this accident still makes it quite uncomfortable. In the difficult development of India's long-awaited new P-15B, the loss of a destroyer with a displacement of nearly 5,000 tons is not something that the Indian Navy can easily ignore.
▲ The Chinese Navy's spectacular new destroyer fleet is very rare in the world
Of course, in addition to the reduction in the number of destroyers caused by the apparent explosion accident, the Indian Navy personnel management problems behind the accident are the most deadly. For the navy of any country, after its scale and technical level reach a certain level, it is actually difficult to avoid accidents, and the key lies in whether accidents can be dealt with in time. In July 2020, the USS Good Guy Richard amphibious assault ship, while anchored at the port of call, ignited a fire due to an accident, and finally due to poor supervision, the fire was out of control and finally burned down completely, so that the 40,000-ton amphibious assault ship that entered service in 1998 and cost $1.1 billion was forced to be retired.
▲ The "Good Guy Richard" that came out of the fire and billowing smoke
In contrast, in April 2020, the Type 075 amphibious assault ship built by the Continental Navy also had an accident during the sea trial, and black smoke came out of the tail (later rumored to be due to plastic fire), but under the organization of competent personnel, the fire was quickly extinguished, and a small part of the surface was blackened, and repaired the next day, which is the outstanding proof of an efficient and high-quality response team. In the American "Good Guy Richard" and India's destroyer explosion accident, the poor post-disaster performance often leads the accident in another direction. In fact, the Indian Navy has been a series of accidents of all kinds in recent years, the most famous of which is that a "Kilo" class submarine purchased from Russia accidentally touched the missile launch button in the harbor, causing the missile to sink itself, showing the poor state of the Indian Navy's personnel management to the outside world, and the explosion accident undoubtedly further deepened this view.
▲ Indian "Kilo" class "Sindulaksak" submarine that exploded and caught fire
At present, the Indian Navy has obtained a series of advanced equipment including 40,000-ton aircraft carriers, more than 40 MiG-29K carrier-based aircraft, domestically produced "Annihilator" nuclear submarines, and nuclear submarines leased from Russia through domestic production or imports from other countries. However, any advanced equipment is in the hands of a well-trained military team in order to exert combat effectiveness, and the Indian Navy can have various accidents of all sizes in a state of peace.
▲A scene with a lot of Indian characteristics
However, the Indian Navy does not seem to care about this, continuing to ambitiously build a conventional maritime combat formation with two 40,000-ton aircraft carriers as the core, while also actively developing its domestic nuclear submarine fleet. However, whether it is a medium-sized aircraft carrier or an underwater nuclear submarine, it is the top model in the current advanced technology and equipment of the navy, in addition to the design and construction requires a very high level of technology and advanced manufacturing technology, the high-quality personnel on the ship is the key to truly exerting combat effectiveness. When the Mainland Navy developed the "Liaoning" aircraft carrier, it was the "88" Xuxia passenger ship that entered service in July 2011, and the two were often trained in two sets of personnel alternately going to sea to ensure the training of a large number of well-trained aircraft carrier operators. In the case that the Indian Navy has frequent problems in the maintenance of its destroyer base, how to ensure the strength of the two aircraft carrier formations and underwater nuclear submarines, with enough high-quality operators, is probably not easy.
▲The Chinese Navy's 2 aircraft carriers and 1 training ship were once jokingly called "3 aircraft carriers"
In fact, the reason why the Indian Navy and Air Force have frequently had major accidents in technical equipment in recent years, in addition to its deep-rooted caste system that is difficult for the outside world to understand, the most fundamental reason is that India's own national strength is actually not enough to support its navy and air force to invest a lot of money and buy a large number of advanced equipment. For example, India has purchased 284 Su-30MKIs, 36 Rafale fighters imported at a cost of $8.8 billion, and two ambitious 40,000-ton medium-sized aircraft carriers and underwater nuclear forces. At the same time, it also purchased from the United States equipment with excellent performance but extremely expensive cost, including P-8I long-range patrol aircraft, C-17 strategic transport aircraft, and "Apache" helicopter gunships. In the case of the consumption of a lot of money in these equipment procurement, it is not surprising that the resources of the Indian Navy and Air Force for personnel training and logistical maintenance support will inevitably be greatly reduced, and eventually there will be repeated accidents, so that it will make its face disgraced.