Let's get real

Navy's plan to build 24 subs is too ambitious

There is a worrying disconnect between the Indian Navy’s budget and its spending plans. On the one hand, the navy has told a parliamentary panel on defence that it plans to build 24 new submarines, including six nuclear attack submarines (SSNs). On the other hand, the navy chief, Admiral Karambir Singh, has publicly lamented that, with the navy’s share of the overall defence budget having shrunk from 18 per cent in 2012-13 to just 13 per cent this year, it will have to make do with just 175 warships in 2027 instead of the 200 envisioned in the Maritime Capability