TKMS and Mazagon Dock team up on India's new non-nuclear submarines

ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited on the intended construction of conventional, air-independent-propulsion submarines on 7 June.

With the signing of the MoU thyssenkrupp Marine Systems has laid the foundations for a possible cooperation with Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited to compete in the Indian Navy’s tender. The ceremony took place in Mumbai, India in the presence of Boris Pistorius,the German Defence Minister.

The parties to the MoU intend to cooperate in a joint project in which TKMS contributes the engineering and design of the submarines as well as providing consultancy support. The MoU also states that Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders would be responsible for constructing and delivering the respective submarines. The construction work would take place in India and is expected to include significant local content.

“We look back on a trusting and decade-long partnership with India. The boats we built in the 1980s are still in service today. We are very proud of that and would be delighted to continue contributing to India’s national security in the future. We are ready when India calls,” said Oliver Burkhard, CEO, thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.

thyssenkrupp Marine Systems 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 thyssenkrupp Marine System (then HDW in Kiel), the third and fourth by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders 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.