South Korea has 21 submarines — and exports them.
India, after 40 years and multiple billion-dollar deals, still can’t modify a design drawing without asking a foreign OEM for permission.
Both started with germany in the 1980s.
Only one kept building.
The other kept stopping, blacklisting, forgetting, restarting, and then proudly wondering why nothing works.
What follows is the brutal autopsy of a four-decade defence policy failure.
1. india and Korea Started the Same Race. Korea Finished Three Laps. india Forgot the Track.
Both countries began with HDW’s German Type-209 programme.
Korea saw it as Step 1 of a 30-year ladder.
India saw it as a purchase order.
2. india Built Four Submarines… Then, Built a Blacklist.
The HDW scandal froze the line, killed follow-ons, and sent critical skills into the graveyard.
A decade later, india had to relearn what it once knew.
3. Korea Treated Submarine Building Like a Continuous assembly Line, Not a Festival.
By 1997, visitors saw four submarines in four stages at Korean shipyards.
Continuous production — the magic phrase india has never respected.
4. India’s Decade-Long Gaps Killed Skills Faster Than Any Enemy Could.
A pressure-hull welder offline for three months needs recertification.
India kept them offline for years.
This wasn’t mismanagement — it was capability suicide.
5. The 1999 Plan Promised 24 Submarines by 2030. india Won’t Reach Half That by 2040.
Three phases, two parallel lines, and a grand indigenous dream.
On paper, brilliant.
In reality, delayed, diluted, derailed.
6. Project 75 Delivered Six Submarines — Five Years Late and With zero Real Design Knowledge.
The French taught assembly, not autonomy.
Indian engineers weren’t even allowed to glance at crucial laptop screens during trials.
“Screwdriver technology transfer” wasn’t an insult — it was the official operating mode.
7. Project 75I Became a Bureaucratic Ghost Ship for 15 Years.
Endless tenders, RFP rewrites, committees, objections, resets, re-evaluations.
As of 2025, not even a steel plate has been cut.
8. Korea Built 21 Subs. india Built One Word: Delay.
Korea: 9 Type-209s → 9 AIP Type-214s → indigenous KSS-III.
India: 4 HDW → 6 Scorpenes → waiting, renegotiating, recertifying, recutting paperwork.
9. india Is Paying ₹90,000 Crore for P75I — Twice the Original Estimate — for technology It Still May Not Fully Own.
Costs doubled, timelines doubled, capabilities halved.
Everyone is building something — except the submarines.
10. The Core Lesson Korea Understood and india Ignored: NEVER Let the Line Go Cold.
Submarine capability dies fast.
India let it die twice in forty years.
Korea let it die zero times — and now exports what india is still struggling to assemble.
11. India’s Indigenous Dream (Project 76) Looks Uncomfortably Like Past Dreams.
Officials promise real transfer, design autonomy, and local expertise.
They promised it in the 1980s.
They promised it in the 2000s.
They’re promising it again in 2025.
12. One Country Exports Submarines. The Other Is Still Asking Permission to Move a Line in a Drawing.
That’s the whole story in one savage sentence.
Capability is built, not bought.
And india hasn’t allowed itself to build.
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