Preface
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China's military strength and economic strength have gradually risen with a steady attitude, and its GDP has risen to the second place in the world!
As the most populous country in the world, India is the largest country in the South Asian subcontinent, but India's own military strength is insufficient to invent its own submarines with its own capabilities.
So if you want to enhance your military strength, you can only purchase from abroad, so what has India calculated on the road to buying submarines, and who has become the "wronged boss" in the deal with India?
The ideal of a naval power
In 2012, India leased a nuclear submarine from Russia for $920 million, and has since become one of the world's nuclear submarine powers.
However, such honors were never one-time, and the ten-year lease period was about to expire, and India had to return the nuclear submarines......
However, through this incident, we can see India's eagerness to become a naval power.
If you can't build a nuclear submarine, you have to buy it, and if you can't buy it, you have to borrow it, in short, no matter how much money it has, India just wants to keep the submarine in the country.
For this reason, India has also become the laughing stock of certain experts in the military field.
It is because India buys submarines from Russia almost three times more than other countries.
And the act of buying nuclear submarines at such a huge price compared to India's own low economic power.
It's like a poor person saving up for months of salary to buy a brand-name bag, slapping his swollen face and becoming fat.
However, with a nuclear submarine, India is not satisfied.
Even if ridiculed by others, India still spends huge sums of money to buy submarines and aircraft carriers from foreign countries.
Although it also requires a lot of money to maintain these equipment.
But India doesn't seem to care, only wants to become a naval power, so in 2019 India proposed to sign an agreement with Russia
This time it is intended to lease a nuclear-powered attack submarine, which is expected to cost $3 billion and be delivered in 2025.
This is the second time that India has spent billions of dollars to buy nuclear submarines from Russia, following India's purchase of nuclear submarines from Russia in 2012.
Some military fans joked that India's VIP in the Russian weapons research and development institute has been renewed......
The road to purchase was frustrated
Although India has a lot of money on the road to purchasing nuclear submarines, money cannot solve all problems, and India will inevitably suffer setbacks in purchasing nuclear submarines.
In 2022, Russian news media reported that India's AIP submarine purchase program may be on the verge of bankruptcy.
5 of the 6 foreign companies bidding have already given up, and only 1 company is crumbling, so what is an AIP submarine?
To put it simply, AIP technology is the ability to drive a submarine for a long time without obtaining oxygen from the air.
This kind of submarine has a longer endurance than a diesel submarine, and the cost is cheaper than that of a nuclear submarine.
It plays a very prominent role in strengthening a country's maritime strength.
However, the only countries that have AIP technology are Germany, Russia, France, Sweden, Spain and China.
If India wants to buy such submarines, there are few options left other than China, which they see as their opposite.
In 2021, India announced the launch of the "P-75I" project, which plans to build 6 submarines equipped with AIP technology.
If this plan succeeds, it will greatly enhance India's maritime military strength, which can be said to demonstrate India's strong ambition to develop maritime military affairs.
India has extended invitations to six countries: Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, Spain and Russia.
It is hoped that they can participate in the bidding for this project in India and provide boat building services for it, and the Indian Ministry of Defense clearly stated in the statement:
"The estimated cost of the project is 430 billion rupees (about 48 billion yuan). ”
Indian media also reported that the 75I project is expected to cost $5.6 billion.
But why would such a high budget incur bids from other companies?
Buying a ship to become a strong country is a fool's dream
In fact, the reason why many countries withdrew from India's bidding is mainly because of India's high requirements for this batch of AIP submarines.
Although the budget given by India is relatively high, the high profit attracts various countries to take the initiative.
However, during the negotiations with India, these bidding countries gradually understood India's scheming and methods, and India put forward four demands:
First of all, the first submarine had to be delivered within fifteen months.
Second, regardless of the reason, if the manufacturer delays, it must pay extremely high liquidated damages to India.
Third, manufacturers should not only build submarines for India, but also transfer 60% of key technologies and deepen cooperation with India.
Fourth, the cost must be reported before building a boat.
These four requirements discouraged the original bidding countries, and the German manufacturer said:
"There will be no further engagement with the Indian partner unless there are significant changes to the tender conditions on the Indian side. ”
Not only that, India also requires that it cannot directly pay for the goods with one hand and deliver the goods with one hand, and must go through the secondary construction of the Indian factory before entering the sea.
This requirement is strange, foreign high-tech manufacturing is fully capable of supporting the use of the Indian Navy.
Why do you have to go through the hands of Indian factories that can't make submarines before you can go to sea?
This is another Indian thought......
The submarines pass through factories in India for secondary processing before being sold to the Indian military.
In this way, when India pays money, a large part of it can flow into Indian companies, which reduces its budget in disguise.
In the face of India's stringent requirements, many companies said they could not accept it and chose to withdraw from the bidding.
The only remaining South Korean companies did not say anything, saying only that they were "concerned" about the technology transfer, and in fact they were also vaguely refusing.
After the setback of India's plans to purchase AIP submarines, it had to lower its requirements and re-select a partner to work with.
But after India's last backstab, many countries have said that they no longer want to cooperate with India.
Even if they cooperate, it is not possible to build submarines directly for India, but to sell AIP technology at a high price.
However, due to the lack of strong scientific and technological talents in India, AIP technology cannot be truly realized only by relying on technical drawings......
India's purchase of submarines can be said to be a high probability of failure, and no one wants to become the "wronged boss".
From this incident, it is not difficult for us to find that in any transaction, only by treating people with integrity can we achieve win-win cooperation.
epilogue
In any dealings, do not rely on your own cleverness to try to profit from it, let alone a transaction between countries.
No country is willing to sacrifice its own interests to satisfy the delusions of other countries.
And to raise the country's military level, it is impossible to achieve it by buying and leasing alone.
Only by calming down and relying on our own strength to develop and manufacture can we truly gain a firm foothold on the world stage.
Information sources:
"India plans to lease the second Akula-class nuclear submarine from Russia by borrowing the depreciation of the ruble" - Observer.com 2014-12-17
"India Plans to Spend $3 Billion to Lease Russian "Shark"-class Attack Nuclear Submarines" - Xinhuanet 2019-03-05
"India's huge budget to purchase weapons costs 5.6 billion US dollars to build 6 submarines locally" - Dagong.com 2019-02-02
"India launches international tender for six new diesel-electric submarines" - Observer.com 2021-06-06
"India's submarine upgrade faces many difficulties" - Xinhuanet 2023-03-20