Why in news? The fifth Scorpene class conventional submarine was commissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Vagir at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai.

Highlights

• INS Vagir among the six submarines being built by the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Mumbai, in collaboration with the French M/s Naval Group under Project 75.
• Currently, India has a less-than-ideal number of submarines, with many new ones being at various stages of construction.

What is Project 75I ?

• It is a programme for indigenous construction of submarines which is known to have two separate series of submarine building lines codenamed Project 75 and Project 75I in collaboration with foreign entities.

About Vagir

• It is a diesel-electric attack submarine based on the Scorpene class
• The submarine inherits its name from INS Vagir (S41), served in the Navy from 1973–2001, and was named after a species of sandfish also called as Sand shark
• This class of submarines have Diesel Electric transmission systems and these are primarily attack submarines or ‘hunter-killer’ types which means they are designed to target and sink adversary naval vessels.
• It is commonly called ‘sand shark’

What is its importance in Navy ?

• Vagir will boost the Indian Navy’s capability to further India’s maritime interests and is capable of undertaking diverse missions including anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, mine laying and surveillance missions

Kalvari-class background

• Vagir is a Kalvari-class submarine, which includes other vessels, such as the INS Kalvari, INS Khanderi, INS Karanj, INS Vela and INS Vagsheer.
• Kalvari and Khanderi were commissioned in 2017 and 2019, and Vela and Karanj were inducted in 2021.
• Vagir has now been commissioned and Vagsheer was launched in 2022 and is expected to be inducted next year