The Indian Navy have been operating submarines since the 1960s. However, the indigenous design and building of submarines was realised with design and building of SSK submarines of Type 1500 in collaboration with Germany. The country has acquired the technical knowledge and skill to design and build ingenious submarines. Indian shipyard MDL Mumbai, the premier shipyard in the country had built two SSK submarines during the late 1980s. In fact, India was among the very few nations in the world who could build submarines back during those years.

While remarkable achievements were made in the design of surface combatants, the strategic goals of the Indian Navy also demanded the country to possess a well-built indigenous submarine design and construction capability. With this vision was born the Submarine Design Group (SDG). It made a modest launch in May 1986, with a small team of 25 personnel, trained in Germany as a part of the SSK Programme.

The programme for continuation of submarine design and building in India however came to a sudden halt due to non-technical reasons. The infrastructure developed at MDL Mumbai has remained idle and un-utilised for the last almost twelve years. Efforts have been made to reanimate submarines building with more emphasis on indigenous development of systems in the Indian industry. The design organisation is well fitted to undertake design and design production interaction for submarines.

In the last two decades however, the SDG (Submarine Design Group) has brought India to a state of self-sufficiency in design and construction of submarines, submersibles and under water vehicles. While the intellectual capital of the design group comprises a number of key disciplines, the Corps plays a pre-eminent and integrating role.

The Submarine Design Group is presently involved in assimilating the design of the French "Scorpene" class submarines (Project 75), so as to deliver design support to Mazagaon Docks Ltd (MDL) undertaking the construction. The outstanding aspect of this contract is the complete Transfer of Technology for construction and the Transfer of Design Documentation by the French collaborators to MDL and the Indian Navy.

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