Kamorta Class ASW Corvettes

Daredevil

On Vacation!
Super Mod
Joined
Apr 5, 2009
Messages
11,615
Likes
5,772
Project 28: Prestigious Indian anti-submarine corvette project

Project 28: Prestigious Indian anti-submarine corvette project delayed to build up private sector suppliers


By Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 1st August 09
Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Kolkata

In the hot Kolkata sun, on the banks of the Hooghly River, craftsmen from Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) swarm over what will be the Indian Navy’s most high-tech stealth warship. For GRSE, the navy’s order for four anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvettes is its flagship project. But Project 28, as it is termed, is two years behind schedule.

The first corvette was to join the fleet early next year. Business Standard discovered, during a first-ever media visit to this secretive project, that it will be delivered only in June 2012. The other three corvettes of Project 28 will follow at one-year intervals.

The major reason for the delay: the Indian Navy has stipulated such unprecedented standards of stealth for every piece of equipment on board that suppliers have struggled to develop engines, transmission, air-conditioning and power-generating systems that work silently enough to meet those requirements. Furthermore, the navy mandated that Indian suppliers would provide much of that equipment.

The Project 28 corvettes are 2500-tonne warships that will protect Indian Navy battle groups and coastal installations from lurking enemy submarines. In the deadly cat-and-mouse game between ASW corvettes and submarines, the stealthier vessel is usually the winner, detecting and destroying its opponent after sneaking up undetected. The challenge of Project 28 has been to minimise vibrations and noise from the ship’s machinery, propellers, and from water swirling past the hull.

Success has come late in developing some of this equipment. The Kirloskar group has delivered the engines, albeit after a delay. Earlier this year, DCNS of France supplied the Raft Mounted Gearbox, which almost completely suppresses noise from the power pack. But Wartsila India is still struggling to reduce vibration in the four diesel alternators that will power the corvette’s electronics.

Once all this is in place, six huge spaces will have to be cut open in the corvette’s hull, through which giant cranes will lower monster-sized equipment like the 65-tonne engines. Then the hull will be welded shut once again.

For the navy, which has implemented indigenisation as something of a religion --- the Naval Headquarters includes a full-fledged Directorate of Indigenisation --- the delay in Project 28 is a regrettable, but acceptable, consequence of its twin objectives: building cutting edge warships and, simultaneously, developing Indian warship building industry.

The Navy Chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta told Business Standard that the navy had carefully laid down stealth standards that were absolutely necessary in war. Admiral Mehta explained, “We cannot compromise operational requirements for suppliers who are having difficulties meeting standards. We cannot come second in war.”

The navy’s top designer, Rear Admiral MK Badhwar, says the navy is determined to nurture an Indian supplier base, to develop increasingly high-tech products for warships. He points out, “Initially, they (the private companies) had real problems in meeting the sophistication levels that we were demanding. But we insisted and now most of them have done so. This is vital for an indigenous shipbuilding industry.”

All this has taken the cost of Project 28 from a sanctioned Rs 2800 crores (Rs 700 crores per corvette), to an estimated Rs 7000 crores now. This is approximately in line with cost increases for previous Indian-built warships.

GRSE’s Chairman and Managing Director, Rear Admiral KC Sekhar explains, “Fortunately our shipyard will not take a financial hit, since this was a cost-plus contract (in which the actual cost of construction of the first ship will be the basis for paying for the entire project). But we have learned valuable lessons. The complexity of the project was totally underestimated.”

The Project 28 corvettes, when they join the navy’s fleet, will be silent and heavily armed. An Otomelara Super Rapid Gun Mount (SRGM) on the bow can pour 76 millimetre shells onto aerial and surface targets. Flanking it will be two Indigenous Rocket Launchers (IRLs) that can fire at both submarines and ships. Submarines can also be engaged through six torpedo tubes. Two AK 630 Gatling guns, one on either side, can shoot down attacking aircraft. Finally, vertically launched missiles are likely to be mounted for engaging aerial targets.
 

Tamil

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
446
Likes
13
Country flag
Great news. we need to fasten the process ASAP. we need to built more docks and yards around the cost. :india:
 

threadbrowser

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
84
Likes
3
Very nifty. I dont think the delay will matter much, the carriers that will form the centerpieces of the BGs are both delayed themselves.
I wonder though about our lack of a detailed acoustic library such as that the US has compiled over the decades and about the advanced tech needed to make the towed array sonars for ASW.
 

Daredevil

On Vacation!
Super Mod
Joined
Apr 5, 2009
Messages
11,615
Likes
5,772
I'm happy that Indian Navy is insisting on indigenous capabilities without lowering the standards. It will not only reduce dependency on foreign vendors but also increase our indigenous capabilities.
 

Yusuf

GUARDIAN
Super Mod
Joined
Mar 24, 2009
Messages
24,324
Likes
11,756
Country flag
India is trying to get te accoustic signature of Chinese vessels. Remember the incident near Yemen where thr Chinese claimed the had forced an indian sub to surface? The sub was on a mission to gather signals from the three boats the Chinese had sent there. There have been instances if India photographing their ships as well. All that will come in handy when ships like those from Project 28 come along.
 

natarajan

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
2,592
Likes
762
chinese submarine got hit by a towed array sonar of usa ship and it happened few months ago i think
oh some one is trailing me like chinese and deleting all my posts:cray:
 

Yusuf

GUARDIAN
Super Mod
Joined
Mar 24, 2009
Messages
24,324
Likes
11,756
Country flag
So what's the relevance ofa Chinese ship being hit by a US Towed antenna here?
 

natarajan

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
2,592
Likes
762
just to say that even usa has not mastered it so we should be carefull when we use such kind of things during peace time
 

Yusuf

GUARDIAN
Super Mod
Joined
Mar 24, 2009
Messages
24,324
Likes
11,756
Country flag
No it says the chinese sub got too close to the US boat.
 

bhramos

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
25,625
Likes
37,233
Country flag
didnt US boat recognise that a Sub ilurking around????????
 

Pintu

New Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2009
Messages
12,082
Likes
348
Great news ! indeed , I totally agree with dd , its great that navy has the push for indigenous equipment without compromising with quality, that will also reduce dependency.

Regards
 

threadbrowser

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
84
Likes
3
Guys as i understand it ASW is about finding out what the other guy can do without him finding out all of your capabilities.
So even if your nifty towed array's passive sonar sensors have the enemy sub dialed in maneuvering to avoid will tell him so. In fact i think this was exactly what the chinese were after, move your noisy boat at him so that you find out at what range he will try to open the distance.
Just my Rs 0.02.
 

Yusuf

GUARDIAN
Super Mod
Joined
Mar 24, 2009
Messages
24,324
Likes
11,756
Country flag
ASW is anti submarine warfare.

Towed sonars are use to signature a particular boat and keep it in database do that the next time it's around you know what you are dealing with. In a war this information comes in handy as the captain knows what exactly he is dealing with and what are the capabilities of the adversary.
 

enlightened1

Member of The Month JANUARY 2010
Regular Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
880
Likes
60
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/stealth-warships-to-get-deadlier/379830/http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/stealth-warships-to-get-deadlier/379830/

Ajai Shukla / New Delhi December 17, 2009, 0:41 IST

The Indian Navy’s prestigious Project 28, the programme to build four of the world’s stealthiest anti-submarine corvettes, is on track to become even more cutting edge. By the end of this month, three international shipbuilders will be bidding to provide Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) with the technology to build a major part of the corvettes — the entire superstructure — with lightweight composites.

By making the superstructure, which is the upper part of the ship that rests on the hull, of lighter composite material, the 2,500-tonne warships will become lighter, stealthier and far more stable in the water. Already acclaimed as world-class warships, composite superstructures will make them amongst the most effective submarine hunters in any of the world’s navies.

Business Standard has learned that the Ministry of Defence will shortly issue tenders to three shipbuilders with extensive experience in fabricating composites. Kockums of Sweden, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), which builds the world’s stealthiest warships, the 650-tonne Visby class corvettes, is a leading contender; also in the fray are Greek shipbuilder, Intermarine; and Korea’s Kangnam Corporation.

With composite materials increasingly crucial to warships, this lucrative tender could open the door for broader partnership with Indian defence shipyards.

The three companies are maintaining a discrete silence for now, but an aide to the spokesperson of TKMS admitted, “India is an interesting market for TKMS at the moment because of the serious attention that the government of India is giving to the technical future of the Indian Navy.”

The first two corvettes of Project 28, which are nearing completion, have already been built with conventional steel superstructures. Subsequent corvettes, that is the third ship onwards, can have composite superstructures. The chairman and managing director of GRSE, Rear Admiral KC Sekhar, told Business Standard during a visit to GRSE in August that, “Composite materials technology can only be incorporated for the third and fourth ships of Project 28. The first corvette is already 90 per cent completed. Eighty per cent of the superstructure is ready for the second corvette.”

All the high technology going into Project 28 is boosting costs; GRSE and the defence ministry are locked in negotiations to finalise a price for the corvettes. Since 2003, when the order was placed, GRSE has worked on Project 28 based on nothing more than a Letter of Intent (LoI) from the ministry. The cost mentioned in that LoI was derived from the cost of the earlier Project 25A, for previous generation Kora class corvettes.

But now, that cost has ballooned, partly because of repeated changes that the Navy has demanded in order to keep Project 28 at the cutting edge of stealth technology. The LoI’s Rs 2,800 crore for the four ships of Project 28 (Rs 700 crore per corvette), has swelled to Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 1,750 crore per corvette). And, since the cost of the first ship of Project 28 was to determine the real cost of Project 28, the defence ministry has little option but to pay that amount.

But Business Standard has learned that the MoD-GRSE negotiations could soon have a happy ending.

Although the order was placed in 2003, the ministry is likely to agree to a “commencement of production” date of March 2006, to compensate for the delays caused by repeated changes in specifications.

Since the first Project 28 corvette is likely to roll out in 2012, that will amount to a notional build period of 6 years, in line with the time that most foreign shipyards take to produce the first ship of a class. Subsequent ships, however, are expected to be churned out much faster.
 

RAM

The southern Man
Senior Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2009
Messages
2,288
Likes
445
Country flag
Project 28-Stealth warships to get deadlier

Stealth warships to get deadlier


The Indian Navy’s prestigious Project 28
, the programme to build four of the world’s stealthiest anti-submarine corvettes, is on track to become even more cutting edge. By the end of this month, three international shipbuilders will be bidding to provide Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) with the technology to build a major part of the corvettes — the entire superstructure — with lightweight composites.By making the superstructure, which is the upper part of the ship that rests on the hull, of lighter composite material, the 2,500-tonne warships will become lighter, stealthier and far more stable in the water. Already acclaimed as world-class warships, composite superstructures will make them amongst the most effective submarine hunters in any of the world’s navies.

Business Standard has learned that the Ministry of Defence will shortly issue tenders to three shipbuilders with extensive experience in fabricating composites. Kockums of Sweden, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), which builds the world’s stealthiest warships, the 650-tonne Visby class corvettes, is a leading contender; also in the fray are Greek shipbuilder, Intermarine; and Korea’s Kangnam Corporation.With composite materials increasingly crucial to warships, this lucrative tender could open the door for broader partnership with Indian defence shipyards.

The three companies are maintaining a discrete silence for now, but an aide to the spokesperson of TKMS admitted, “India is an interesting market for TKMS at the moment because of the serious attention that the government of India is giving to the technical future of the Indian Navy.”The first two corvettes of Project 28, which are nearing completion, have already been built with conventional steel superstructures. Subsequent corvettes, that is the third ship onwards, can have composite superstructures. The chairman and managing director of GRSE, Rear Admiral KC Sekhar, told Business Standard during a visit to GRSE in August that, “Composite materials technology can only be incorporated for the third and fourth ships of Project 28. The first corvette is already 90 per cent completed. Eighty per cent of the superstructure is ready for the second corvette.”
All the high technology going into Project 28 is boosting costs; GRSE and the defence ministry are locked in negotiations to finalise a price for the corvettes. Since 2003, when the order was placed, GRSE has worked on Project 28 based on nothing more than a Letter of Intent (LoI) from the ministry. The cost mentioned in that LoI was derived from the cost of the earlier Project 25A, for previous generation Kora class corvettes.

But now, that cost has ballooned, partly because of repeated changes that the Navy has demanded in order to keep Project 28 at the cutting edge of stealth technology. The LoI’s Rs 2,800 crore for the four ships of Project 28 (Rs 700 crore per corvette), has swelled to Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 1,750 crore per corvette). And, since the cost of the first ship of Project 28 was to determine the real cost of Project 28, the defence ministry has little option but to pay that amount.

But Business Standard has learned that the MoD-GRSE negotiations could soon have a happy ending.

Although the order was placed in 2003, the ministry is likely to agree to a “commencement of production” date of March 2006, to compensate for the delays caused by repeated changes in specifications.Since the first Project 28 corvette is likely to roll out in 2012, that will amount to a notional build period of 6 years, in line with the time that most foreign shipyards take to produce the first ship of a class. Subsequent ships, however, are expected to be churned out much faster.

:: Bharat-Rakshak.com - Indian Military News Headlines ::
 

AJSINGH

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
1,237
Likes
77
what about submarines ? like AVM barbora says that defense ministries take half hearted effort in the mordenisation of indian armed forces ,so i think out submarine force should be give the most help
 

slenke

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2010
Messages
135
Likes
19
Any news on Project 28? I really hope they go for swedish tech on this =)
 

nandu

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2009
Messages
1,913
Likes
163
New, indigenous Corvette launched for trials

Kolkata, Apr 19, India today launched one of its indigenously built anti-submarine warfare warship for trials before its induction into the Navy.

Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju's wife Mamatha M launched the stealth corvette, first of the series of four under Project 28, at a function at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), a Defence PSU shipyard, here.

The corvette, codenamed Yard 3017, is scheduled for commissioning in to the Naval fleet by mid-2012.

Three other warships in this class of corvettes are currently under construction here and all of them are expected to be inducted into the Navy by early 2015, Navy officials in New Delhi said.

Fitted with the latest indigenously developed sonars to detect submarines, the warships' torpedo tubes, Improvised Rocket Launchers (IRL) and scutter launchers contribute to its anti-submarine punch.

http://www.ptinews.com/news/616728_New--indigenous-Corvette-launched-for-trials
 

Global Defence

Articles

Top