An important turning point in India’s underwater exploration capabilities has been reached with the successful completion of the wet testing phase of the ambitious deep-sea exploration project, Matsya-6000. The fourth-generation deep-ocean submersible, the Matsya-6000, was created as part of the Deep Ocean Mission’s Samudrayaan Project and has a spherical hull that can hold three people.
The submersible’s power and control systems, flotation stability, and life-support systems were evaluated using a combination of manned and unmanned dives at L&T Shipbuilding in Kattupalli Port between January 27 and February 12, 2025.
It can accommodate three people in its small, 2.1-meter-diameter spherical shell, which is composed of a sturdy titanium alloy. Extreme underwater pressure is something that the hull is built to resist.
Strong and resistant to fracture, this 80mm-thick titanium alloy is perfect for enduring high underwater pressures.
Endurance: Provides up to 96 hours of emergency operation in addition to 12 hours of regular operation.
Design: Three people can fit within this small, 2.1-meter-diameter spherical hull.
Technology: Outfitted with cutting-edge communication, navigation, and life support systems.
The first deep-sea manned submersible from India, the Matsya-6000, is built to go to 6,000 meters, making it one of the few submersibles that can reach such great depths. It is comparable to several well-known deep-sea submersibles as follows:
The Matsya-6000 uses titanium for increased safety, in contrast to the Titan, which was composed of carbon fibre and tragically imploded. The Titan lacked the durability required for great depths, but it was lighter and less expensive.
Few nations, including the US, China, Russia, Japan, and France, have created submersibles that can reach comparable depths. Because the Matsya-6000 uses “off-the-shelf” components, it is less expensive and lighter than some of these.
The Matsya-6000 is intended to descend to 6,000 meters, which is equivalent to the world’s deepest diving submersibles. India is positioned as one of the leaders in deep-sea exploration thanks to this capabilities.
Under the Samudrayaan mission, it is an indigenous project that demonstrates India’s technological prowess in underwater engineering.
Its crew is safer thanks to the usage of titanium and redundant systems.
Scientific Capabilities: Outfitted with cutting-edge sensors and tools for scientific study and deep-sea mineral exploitation.
Eight dives—three manned and five unmanned—were conducted as part of the testing to assess the submersible’s performance in actual oceanic conditions.
The Matsya-6000 can last up to 96 hours in an emergency. This increases the submersible’s potential endurance to 108 hours by ensuring that, in the event of an emergency, it can sustain its crew for an extra 96 hours on top of its typical 12-hour operational duration.
The experiments demonstrated that the Matsya-6000 is on track for further demonstrations in deeper waters, despite certain constraints in underwater communication caused by the constrained harbour depth.
By the end of 2025, the submersible will have achieved its next milestone: demonstration dives down to 500 meters, opening the door for more expeditions to reach its maximum depth.
The Matsya-6000 is outfitted with cutting-edge technologies, such as a battery bank, thrusters, a main ballast system, buoyant syntactic foam, and complex control, navigation, and communication systems.
In keeping with the nation’s goal of becoming self-sufficient in undersea exploration, the submersible is a component of India’s larger Deep Ocean Mission, which seeks to create technology for extracting living and non-living materials from the deep oceans.
The successful conclusion of the wet testing has increased trust in India’s capacity to carry out human-crewed deep-sea missions, making it one of the few countries that can do such feats.
