Amid the visit, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh witnessed a demonstration on Saturday at the William B. Morgan Large Cavitation Channel (LCC) at the Naval Surface Warfare Centre in Memphis, Tennessee. This visit is a continuation of India’s relentless endeavors to set up a similar advanced center for the testing of ships as well as submarines within the country. The LCC is one of the largest and most sophisticated high-speed, variable-pressure water tunnel complexes in the world, aimed at ship and submarine design and testing facilities.
The visit by Rajnath Singh, accompanied by senior officials of the navy and representatives of the DRDO, demonstrated support for India’s planned bid to have its own testing facility. The LCC, which has been in service since 1991, affords major cost benefits by offering a controlled environment in which to test large top‐scale models of new and complex ships and submarines along with full-scale torpedoes. Model simulation empowers the US Navy, for instance, to evaluate such components as power, the efficiency of submarines and surface ships, and propeller noise, among others, in a realistic simulation.
Singh was accompanied by the senior officials of the navy and DRDO during the visit, where he was received by the Deputy Under Secretary of the US Navy for Policy, Anne Gebhards, and Commander of the Naval Surface Warfare Center and Undersea Warfare Center, Rear Admiral Todd Evans. On a walking tour, Singh saw pioneering experiments at the facility and thanked them for using the latest equipment.
On X (previously a Twitter post), Singh described the experiments at the facility and said, “India and the US are ready to further cooperate and use this as an opportunity to share experiences.”
This visit comes after Singh’s recent meetings in Washington with the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin proving the improving defense relations of the two countries. The proposed construction of the analogous center in India is to improve the capabilities of the necessary defense naval technology in India.
Check here for the latest updates in Hindi!