The announcement came this week from Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony who issued a written statement last Monday in Parliament.

Under a $3.9 billion contract signed between France and India in 2005, the construction of three Scorpene submarines would have begun in December 2006. December 2007 and August 2008, respectively.

Mazagon Docks Limited would then schedule delivery of the submarines beginning December 2012.

Still, Antony told Parliament that the scheduled delivery would be pushed back three years because of technical problems in the construction of the submarines.

"As per the contract, the first submarine was scheduled to be delivered in December 2012 and thereafter, one each every year till December 2017," Antony said. "There have been delays due to initial teething problems, absorption of complex technology, augmentation of MDL infrastructure and procurement" of material.

India is building six Scorpene submarines in collaboration with the French firm DCNS. The public accounts committee had previously slammed the contract as giving 'undue favor to the vendor', resulting in a financial loss to the government, apart from cost and time overruns.

Headed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, the committee accused the defense ministry of not affording full information on the extent of the financial loss suffered as a result of the submarine deal.

'The committee deplores the unwarranted stubbornness on the part of the defense ministry not to quantify the exact loss in terms of money due to delayed procurement of submarines for obvious reasons,' the committee said.

The committee had noted that despite a three-tier monitoring system for defense procurements, the acquisition of the submarines got delayed "inordinately," the Sify news Web site reported.

The submarine's delayed delivery comes at a time when the Chinese navy is manufacturing several nuclear submarines, adding to its present fleet of 40 modern submarines.

The Scorpene class submarines are a class of diesel-electric attack submarine jointly developed by the French-based DCN, Spain's Navantia and DCNS. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion.

It is 219 feet long and has a speed of more than 20 knots with a displacement of 1,700 tons. With 31 men onboard, it can remain at sea for about 50 days and can dive a to a depth of more than 1,000 feet.

The Scorpenes are being built in India under the Navy Project 75 which was approved in 1997.

earlier related report
Pakistani media urges arms restraint
Rawalpindi, Pakistan (UPI) Mar 18, 2011 - The Pakistani press is noting India's massive arms purchases over since 2006 and is calling for restraint.

Since 2006 India has emerged as the world's largest arms importer, buying 80 percent of its arsenal form the Russian Federation, the Nawa-e Waqt newspaper reported Thursday.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, since 2006 India has supplanted China as the world's top weapons importer, seeking through advanced weaponry systems purchases to provide a jump-start for its indigenous armaments industries as Delhi moves to modernize its armed forces to project Indian power.

According to a SIPRI report released this month, India purchased 9 percent of the global trade in "major conventional weapons" since 2006, ahead of China, South Korea and Pakistan, in 2009 spending about $37 billion on defense.

Nor is India's armaments purchasing program show signs of slowing. India is seeking to buy 126 advanced fighter aircraft in what will be one of the world's biggest fighter-jet purchases since 19916, according to the Indian Defense Ministry.

Among those competing for the fighter contract are France's Dassault Aviation SA, Chicago's Boeing Co., Maryland's Lockheed Martin Corp., Sweden's Saab AB, Russia's United Aircraft Corp. and European Aeronautic, Defense and Space Co.

India's defense perceptions are driven by Delhi's concerns not only with Pakistan, its traditional foe but increasingly China and its increasingly assertive policy and conduct, which includes Beijing's announced intention to increase its defense spending 12.7 percent in 2011 to $91.5 billion. As China and India share a contentious 2,220-mile Himalayan border where a war was fought in 1962, for India the situation on its northeastern frontier remains unresolved.

The SIPRI report observed, "With the exception of a handful of helicopters from France and Russia, no major conventional weapons were delivered to China in 2009, although transfers (including via licensed production) of engines for aircraft, ships and armored vehicles from Russia, Germany, Ukraine, France and the U.K. continue."

Unlike China, until India establishes a strong indigenous armaments industry, its short-term policy is to import advanced weaponry. In 2009, India imported $2.1 billion in armaments, up from $1.04 billion in 2005. India's current major foreign arms acquisitions include 82 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters and T-90 tanks from Russia along with an A-50/Phalcon Airborne Early Warning system developed by Israel.

As a result of deepening U.S.- Indian ties, the United States, India's sixth-biggest arms supplier, may well move to second position once India begins paying for a series of recent and ongoing acquisitions.

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