Plans To Construct A New Advanced Submarine And Ship-Testing Facility In India Under Consideration: Defence Ministry

Indian Navy is planning to construct an advanced submarine and ship testing facility in India, the Defence Ministry said yesterday (25 August).

This facility is similar to a testing facility — the William B Morgan Large Cavitation Channel (LCC) — that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited yesterday as part of his four-day visit to the United States.

The William B Morgan LCC facility at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Memphis has one of the world's largest and most advanced high-speed variable-pressure water tunnel facilities.

It is a testing facility of the US Navy that facilitates research and development activities for designing ships and submarines. It allows the US Navy to measure the noise control and efficiency of submarine and surface ship propellers, as well as torpedoes, in a controlled and realistic environment.

At the facility, instead of testing large-scale designs of ship or submarine propellers — which is extremely costly and time-consuming — scale models are used to create simulations that provide precise and accurate data to help in designing the system.

Singh later wrote on X, saying, "Witnessed the pathbreaking experiments at the facility. India and the US look forward to working together and benefiting from each other’s experiences."

This new testing facility will allow India to design and develop quieter and more advanced submarines and ships.

India is working on three different submarine projects, which include nuclear attack submarines (SSNs), nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), and diesel-electric attack submarines (SSKs), apart from multiple new ship projects, which include designing Project-18 next-generation destroyers.

Rajnath Singh landed in the US on 22 August, where he held discussions with various US officials, including US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.

He also met with officials of several US defence majors in Washington, including those from General Atomics and General Electric (GE).

India is negotiating with General Atomics to buy 31 MQ-9B armed drones worth close to $3.9 billion and the joint production of General Electric's GE F-414 jet engine in India with transfer of technology.