India to build 34 Naval ships, submarines

[LETHALFORCE]

India to build 34 Naval ships, submarines - The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: Marking a modernisation spree, Indian Navy is constructing 34 ships and submarines and is in the process of acquiring aircraft, destroyers and missiles to equip it to meet all challenges.

Addressing top Naval Commanders here, Defence Minister A K Antony today said thrust was being given to indigenous capabilities while modernising the force.

"34 ships and submarines are in various stages of construction at different shipyards. A large number of contracts have been concluded for acquisition of aircraft, destroyers, fleet tankers, jet trainers, missiles, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and radars," he said.

Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma yesterday said almost all the naval ships planned to be inducted in the next 15 years would be built in India.

Besides inducting new assets, India is also focusing on revamping its indigenous ship-building capabilities.

As part of this, Antony last week commissioned the first-of-its-kind and the biggest ship-lift system at Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), which will significantly reduce the time and effort in repairing ships and constructing new ones.

With a Rs 800 crore and four-phased modernisation plan, GSL is expected to augment its capacity to fabricate and construct steel, aluminium and hull of the naval vessels to nearly three times

 

[joe81]

India to boost 'blue-water' warfare punch with two new stealth frigates

NEW DELHI: The navy continues to hone its war-fighting capabilities despite being stretched in coastal security and anti-piracy operations. The force is now on course to soon induct two more deadly stealth frigates to bolster its growing "blue-water " warfare capabilities.

Sources say the 6,200-tonne indigenous stealth frigate INS Satpura is likely to be commissioned in June-July , while the Russian-built 4,900-tonne INS Teg should finally be ready for induction by September-October . These long-awaited warships will come at a time when navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma has stressed that "maintenance of war-fighting abilities'' remains the "top-most priority" for his force despite the "large number of peacetime commitments (anti-piracy , coastal security and the like) at hand'' .

"With the security situation being fluid, we need to maintain the organizational ability to deploy warships, submarines and aircraft at immediate notice," said Admiral Verma, at the naval commanders' conference here on Tuesday.

INS Satpura and INS Teg will certainly boost combat capabilities, packed as they are with sensors, weapons and missile systems , coupled with their stealthy nature due to "vastly-reduced" radar, infra-red , noise, frequency and magnetic "signatures" to beat enemy detection systems.

That's not all. INS Satpura, the second of three indigenous stealth frigates built under the Rs 8,101-crore Project-17 at Mazagon Docks, will be followed by INS Sahyadri after six months. The first, INS Shivalik, was commissioned in April last year.

India to boost 'blue-water' warfare punch with two new stealth frigates - The Economic Times