thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (tkMS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited on the intended construction of conventional, airindependent-propulsion submarines on 7 June. tkMS will be responsible for engineering, design and consultancy support, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders for construction and delivery.
India is one of Germany’s strategic partners. The MoU was signed in the presence of the German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and with it, tkMS has laid the foundations for a possible cooperation with Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited to compete in the Indian Navy’s tender.
The construction work for the submarines would take place in India and is expected to include significant local content.
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HDW Class 209 submarines
tkMS built and delivered vessels for the Indian Navy in the past. The four HDW Class 209 submarines built in the 1980s had already proved to be a successful Indo-German cooperation. The first and second of those submarines were built by tkMS (then HDW in Kiel), the third and fourth by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in Mumbai. All four vessels were successfully commissioned into the Indian Navy and continue to serve as frontline assets in the Indian Navy’s Mumbai-based submarine fleet.
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