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KIENCHIN

Junior Member
Registered Member
Fire damages Indian Kilo Class Submarine at Mumbai Yard

Fire at Mumbai Yard resulted in damage to a recently upgraded Kilo class submarine.

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Again, what’s going on
 

Xizor

Captain
Registered Member
As I said a few months ago, Indian boat making capabilities are subpar. There was a post about the quality of shipbuilding compared using pics of Ship Hulls (Japan,China and Indian destroyers).I made a remark that the visibly poor craftsmanship of Indian boat-builders are more likely to be the norm across all services of the Indian naval forces rather than just the surface Fleet - including Submarines( SSBNs). I became, unsurprisingly, a focus of complaints regarding unfair bias and bad faith.
Some vindication have been there for me and possibly, more importantly, damning conclusions have to be drawn, especially in the light of a recent report by Jane's
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This report has an introductory paragraphs that runs as follows :
"The Indian Navy (IN) has postponed by several months the commissioning of the second of six Kalvari (Scorpène)-class diesel-electric attack submarines (SSKs) following the discovery of what appear to be manufacturing defects."
So, the most recent and top of the line Diesel electric boats of the Indian Navy will miss its induction date due to manufacturing quality issues.
Do note that this submarine is NOT the first boat in the class. The first boat seems to have been inducted successfully. So there appears to be a lack in maintaining quality manufacturing processes. My doubts regarding the quality of Indian nuclear submarines hold.

It must be concluded that India indeed lacks experience in shipbuilding. I would like to add that such a deficiency seems to be spread across all platforms and India needs to invest into domestic shipbuilding capabilities and take long term approach in the matter. Building small auxiliary ships and exporting them would help.
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
Wow, getting into a naval engagement with India must be really confusing. You show up in your jet with your ship-killer missiles only to find all their ships are already on fire so now you have no idea which ones have already been hit and are sinking and which ones still need to be hit! You start making calls to the last attack squad to see if they remember which ones they hit in order to determine which ones are left and end up having to retreat because you've loitered too long trying to figure it out and now you're low on fuel LOL
 
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localizer

Colonel
Registered Member
Fire at Under-construction Navy Warship at Mumbai Dockyard; Worker Killed, Another Injured
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Mumbai: One person was killed and another injured in a fire at an under-construction warship of the Navy at the Mazgaon dockyard in Mumbai on Friday evening.

The deceased, a contract worker trapped in the vessel, was identified as 23-year-old Bajendra Kumar. He was declared brought dead at the state-run JJ Hospital, said its chief medical officer.




In a statement, the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDSL) spokesperson said that Kumar possibly succumbed to asphyxia and burn injuries. Another worker suffered "minor burn" injuries, it added.

Fire brigade sources said they received a call about the fire at 5.57 pm and it was classified as Level three, which indicated it was serious.

"The under-construction warship 'Visakhapatnam' caught fire at 5.44 pm. The blaze erupted on the second deck of the ship," said PS Rahangdale, chief of the city fire brigade.

Eight fire-fighting engines, along with quick-response vehicle, were pressed into service to extinguish the blaze, he said.

Dockyard authorities said the "minor fire incident took place on Yard 12704 (Visakhapatnam), the first class of Project 15 B during grinding operations in tank at MDL today at around 4 pm. The fire was brought under control by 7 pm".
 

by78

General
Fire at Under-construction Navy Warship at Mumbai Dockyard; Worker Killed, Another Injured
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I don't have any info beyond what's mentioned in the article. But knowing that much of 15B's stuff is the same
as on 15A, it won't be 2024 to build it. More like 2018.

I'm not optimistic, since P15B is supposed to have an upgraded sensor and combat suite, along with a new variant of the Barak, not to mention other weapons new to it that will have to be integrated.

Let'w wait and see, but I don't expect the first ship to enter service until around 2020, judging by India's track record.

Anyone can estimate whatever they like. Who expected US JSF program to be delayed this long?

Anything can happen once you get down to building something, just that measures are being taken by MDL
to cut down on time as much as possible right now. However, I don't expect their efficiency to be on par
with the private shipyards like Pipavav or L&T myself.

@Gessler,
Five years ago you made the prediction that P15B would enter service in 2018, which I deemed wildly optimistic based on India's abysmal record of project management. I had predicted 2020 as the earliest when Project 15B would enter service, and I have been proven correct. As seen
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and
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, the earliest commission date was to be sometime in 2021.

Then, this shipyard fire happened...

So I will accordingly update my prediction. P15B will not enter service until 2023 at the earliest. I think 2024 or 2025 would be realistic. Basically 11 years to from keel-laying to commissioning.
 
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by78

General
Dockyard authorities said the "minor fire incident took place on Yard 12704 (Visakhapatnam), the first class of Project 15 B during grinding operations in tank at MDL today at around 4 pm. The fire was brought under control by 7 pm".

...

Fire brigade sources said they received a call about the fire at 5.57 pm and it was classified as Level three, which indicated it was serious.

I don't know, but I have to trust the firefighters on this one. The fire appears to have been quite serious. I wonder if the hull will be totaled and therefore written off. If not, the repair could take a long time and at great cost, even if assuming that no critical subsystems have been installed.

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Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
I don't know, but I have to trust the firefighters on this one. The fire appears to have been quite serious. I wonder if the hull will be totaled and therefore written off. If not, the repair could take a long time and at great cost, even if assuming that no critical subsystems have been installed.

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I am very skeptical if either of those pictures are depicting the actual ship.

From what I understand the fire was limited to decks 2 and 3, not exactly a fireball.



That said I do expect the commissioning deadline to slip further back
 

by78

General
I am very skeptical if either of those pictures are depicting the actual ship.

From what I understand the fire was limited to decks 2 and 3, not exactly a fireball.



That said I do expect the commissioning deadline to slip further back

Hard to see from these photos, as they were taken at night. The second one is from a live TV news report. What's also not clear are the terms "deck 2 and 3". Are these two decks just above the main deck, as per naval convention, or are they counting from the ship's bottom to top, as per non-naval convention? If the former, then the fire could still be very deep within the hall, and if so, judging from the photos, the damage could only have been extensive; if the latter, than there's an even bigger probability that the hull is lost.

But we'll have to see...
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
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Hard to see from these photos, as they were taken at night. The second one is from a live TV news report. What's also not clear are the terms "deck 2 and 3". Are these two decks just above the main deck, as per naval convention, or are they counting from the ship's bottom to top, as per non-naval convention? If the former, then the fire could still be very deep within the hall, and if so, judging from the photos, the damage could only have been extensive; if the latter, than there's an even bigger probability that the hull is lost.

But we'll have to see...

I'm not sure what "deck 2 and 3" means either; as you see, does it mean above the main deck or from the keel upwards?
But at present that is the only firm information we have.


I haven't come across any pictures showing the fire or the results of it on social media or on the major Indian defense tracking forums.

The picture with the weibo account tag is a picture that I haven't seen posted on any other forum or used in any news reports about the fire that I've seen (and I've been tracking a few Indian defense forums and the news feed for the fire), so I'm not even sure if it's depicting the ship at all or even if it's showing MDL. Out of interest, where did you find that picture in the first place?
[edit: doing a reverse image search of that picture, I'm 100% convinced it isn't of the P15B fire -- it's been featured in articles going back as far as 2015. I'm not sure what the original event was, but it certainly of the P15B]

The TV report one seems to just be a generic stand in picture of a "fire," and not intended to represent the actual ship.
 
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