Platform profile · India · Diesel-electric attack submarine (SSK) acquisition programme · Indian Navy
Cost talks concluded and Finance Ministry cleared; contract awaits final Cabinet Committee on Security approval before signature.
Project-75I is the Indian Navy's programme to build six AIP-equipped diesel-electric attack submarines at Mazagon Dock, Mumbai, with Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) as technology partner — a scaled-up Type 214 derivative displacing over 3,000 tonnes with fuel-cell air-independent propulsion and vertical-launch land-attack cruise missiles. With cost negotiations concluded at roughly US$8-10 billion and the Finance Ministry's clearance in hand, the deal sits one Cabinet Committee on Security signature away from becoming the world's most expensive conventional-submarine contract. Urgency has sharpened as Pakistan inducts the first of eight Chinese Hangor-class AIP boats and signals Bay of Bengal deployments.
Updated last month Updated 29 Jun 2026
Verified figures
Spec sources: idsa.in ↗ · navalnews.com ↗ · tkmsgroup.com ↗
Changelog
India-Germany deal reported on the cusp of Cabinet Committee on Security approval: draft Cabinet note circulated after Defence Acquisition Council clearance, with reported values ranging from ₹70,000 crore to ₹99,000 crore for the six boats.
PNS Hangor — first of eight Chinese-built Hangor-class AIP submarines ordered by Pakistan, commissioned at Sanya in April — arrived in Karachi, with Islamabad signalling Bay of Bengal deployments for the first time since 1971 and sharpening the operational case for P-75I.
Union Finance Ministry cleared the ₹70,000-crore programme, leaving CCS clearance as the final step before contract signature, now expected within FY2026-27.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh toured TKMS's Kiel shipyard and boarded a Type 212 submarine during a three-day Germany visit; German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he expected the contract to be signed within about three months.
Indian Navy and TKMS wrapped up cost negotiations at roughly US$9 billion — negotiated down from an initial MDL-TKMS bid above ₹1.2 lakh crore — with contract signing pushed from March 2026 to early in the next fiscal year.
MDL-TKMS bid declared the sole compliant offer after the rival L&T-Navantia S-80 bid was rejected for lacking a sea-proven AIP system; the commercial bid was opened on 16 January and negotiations began on 27 January 2025.
Defence Acquisition Council chaired by Rajnath Singh approved issuance of the RFP for six AIP-equipped conventional submarines, then estimated at ₹43,000 crore, under the Strategic Partnership model with MDL and L&T as the shortlisted Indian builders.
2 tagged stories
India's largest conventional submarine programme is reportedly one Cabinet decision from contract — and the pending technology transfer review, not the headline price, will decide what the deal is actually worth.
The first of eight Chinese-built AIP boats — and reported plans for Pakistan's first Bay of Bengal submarine deployment since 1971 — sharpen an undersea contest that India's delayed P-75I programme has yet to answer.
