This is my concern too , ssbn wont fight themselves, 2 SSN will be busy in carrier battlegroups.15 odd ssks are not going to do sea denial.Navys strategy us fundamentally flawed.It cant carry out or plan for sea dominance against PLAN which is projected at 15 ssn, 50 ssk, 4 carriers, 25 cruisers and 40 heavy destroyers, plus large number of type54 frigates.Navy has to switch to sea denial in its doctrine against china, for which submarines are most important.If PN gets all 8 yuans our situation would be problematic.Consider this, a talwar class costs the same as a scorpene but has a crew 6 times larger, far more personnel costs.The best thing about subs is crew us less than 50 men,operating costs are thus low for ssk.Buildung and maintaining capital ships are hugely costly.Look at PLAN ...people with 5 years experience are becoming destroyer captains in type 52d..its a joke.
We need 24 ssks at all times minimum.Carrier is totally unsustainable atm.But navy wants its shiny prestige weapon rather than the actual affordable and lethal sub.It needs a mentality change to accept sea denial rather than show the flag dominance that its used to against pak.Remember the day the chinese feel they can secure their trade routes and oil in IOR is the day they will feel emboldened in LAC.They have a trump card- they can place hundreds of srbms on the tibet plateau if they want and target indian heartland, we cant reciprocate as their heartland is far away and can only be targeted by much costlier icbm.But our trump card is the ability to wreck their trade and collapse their economy with our navy.
We must retain the ability.Subs also happen to be the best weapon for shipping interdiction along with aircraft.