Crewed submersible Samudrayaan likely to undertake 500-meter dive in 2026

The prototype of India's crewed submersible Samudrayaan is expected to undertake a 500-meter dive trial in mid-2026, said Dr. Balaji Ramakrishnan, Director of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT). A part of India's multi-institutional Deep Ocean Mission, Samudrayaan is the project that aims to develop a crewed submersible that can undertake oceanic exploration at depths of 6,000meters.

Efforts towards Samudrayaan have been underway since the year 2021. Samudrayaanis India's ambitious deep-sea exploration mission, that will place the country in an elite list of about six nations that have operated manned, deep-sea probes for exploration, studies and research. Earlier this year, harbour trials of the Samudrayaan prototype were conducted at a private shipyard near Chennai, said Dr. Balaji. He added that the tests were meant to test the functional performance, battery performance, buoyancy, and various others parameters of the capsule.

Dr. Balaji was speaking at the Curtain Raiser event ahead of the Indian Government's Emerging Science and Technology Conclave (ESTIC) 2025. A flagship annual event, ESTIC fosters collaboration, bringing together ministries, innovators, and domain experts. This transformative platform will showcase cutting-edge research, deep-tech breakthroughs, and thought-provoking discussions with Nobel Laureates, global experts, policymakers, and emerging leaders.

Helmed by India’s National Institute of Ocean Technology, this initiative has roped in partners such as IITs, ISRO among others to fulfill various aspects of the design, testing and development within the country, while some hardware would be procured from the International market. The primary goal of theSamudrayaanMission is to develop Matsya-6000, a deep-sea exploration vehicle that will be propelled by battery power and can remain at a depth of 6km for a duration of four hours. It is meant to carry a three-member crew within a titanium sphere of 80millimeter thickness. The thick titanium hull of Matsya-6000 is meant to withstand a pressure of 600bar, at the depths of 6,000meters. The Mastya-6000 is meant to have an operational endurance of 12 hours and an emergency endurance of up to 96 hours.

The Matsya-6000 vehicle is a platform to carry robotic arms, sensors and other equipment and conduct experiments that would further enable deep sea mineral exploration, improve understanding of mineral resources, investigation of tectonic activities and other deep-sea phenomena.

With a coastline of 11,098 km and a vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) spanning over 2.4million square kms, there is immense potential for India to explore and tap these unexplored resources to add value to the economy, particularly through the development of the Blue economy.

How India is working with France for Samudrayaan training

In August this year, two Indian aquanauts successfully conducted deep ocean expeditions to depths of 4,025 meters and 5,002 meters in the Atlantic Ocean, aboard a French submersible. The Indian aquanauts - Raju Ramesh, Senior Scientist NIOT and Cdr. Jatinder Pal Singh (Retd)—undertook the dives and gathered valuable experience, made observations, which are crucial as part of the preparation for Samudrayaan.

This expedition was conducted as a collaborative scientific activity with IFREMER, the French marine research institute, in deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean, onboard IFREMER’s submersible Nautile. This mission is seen as a precursor and a training dive, which can help India's indigenous effort.

Working with the French, the Indian team gained hands-on experience in a range of critical operations. These included pre-dive preparation and piloting operations; habitability and buoyancy management along with descent and ascent procedures; intervention tasks using manipulators such as flag placement and sample collection; deployment and retrieval during four dives; trajectory tracking from the ship; managing on-board support systems; operating acoustic telephone communication protocols; as well as dive planning, maneuvering, and other essential operational procedures.