Navy plans to augment might with 45 ships

Expanding its blue water ambitions, the Indian Navy plans to acquire 45 new ships including four landing platform docks (LPD) to deliver armoured vehicles and troops on the shore and six new submarines in the next 10-12 years.

This is in addition to 50 ships, which are already on order and undergoing production in shipyards all over the world. They include Russian origin aircraft carrier “INS Vikramaditya”, to be commissioned on December 4, and three Teg-class stealth frigates, the first of which will be inducted in the Navy on April 27.

To fast pace the delivery schedules, Navy has roped in private shipyards and adopted modular construction methods so that its warship inventory grows up in a relatively short span of time, said Vice-Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan, chief of materials in the Navy.

The naval acquisition road map comes to the limelight days after a section of the Parliamentarians raised queries on India’s military preparedness.

The 45 new ships planned include eight mine counter vessels, four LPDs, one floating dry dock, 16 coastal anti-submarine vessels, one survey training vessel, two deep submersible vessels, six diesel electric submarine with air independent propulsion technology and seven new frigates, reliable sources told Deccan Herald.

The Rs 45,000-crore programme to construct seven stealth frigates at Mazgaon dock in Mumbai and Garden Reach in Kolkata will embrace modular construction technology to cut down the construction time.

Private participation

Private shipyards will be involved to manufacture the LPDs in a Rs 16,000-crore project.

The Navy plans to award two LPDs to a private shipyard while the remaining two would be made at Hindustan Shipyard in Visakhapatnam.

Navy plans to augment might with 45 ships

India has always been suspicious of unwanted guests arriving from the sea, which means, Indian Navy has to be tagda.

India has to have naval strength to block the Straits (or chokepoints into the Indian Ocean).

And have the ability to master the waters in between!

All this in conjunction with friendly Navies and later, on her own!

Will take time!