> India>
India to buy 3 more stealth frigates soon http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1523157.cms
Rajat Pandit
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
NEW DELHI: In a major defence deal, the Navy is all set to order three more Talwar-class "stealth" frigates from Russia. To be inducted within five years, these multi-role guided-missile warships will cost well over Rs 1,000-crore each.
That's not all. Faced with rapidly depleting force-levels, the Navy now has as many as 33 warships "under production or order", mainly in public sector shipyards, to retain its war-waging capabilities. Moreover, the Navy has also got government approval "in principle" for 30 more warships after these 33.
"The technical and commercial negotiations for the three new frigates from Russia have now been wrapped up. The contract will be signed formally as soon as the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approves it," said sources.
The first three such frigates, INS Talwar, INS Trishul and INS Tabar, were inducted in Navy in 2003-2004 after considerable delay due to glitches in missile systems.
The Navy, however, now simply loves these 4,000-tonne frigates due to the deadly punch they pack, with a wide array of sensor and weapon systems, including the 200-km-range 'Klub-N' cruise missiles. The next three frigates, incidentally, will also be armed with the 300-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles.
Sources said Navy, which wants to maintain its present force-level of around 140 warships and submarines, is going in for "this import option" since the order books for the indigenous shipyards is "now full".
Initial work on the Rs 18,798-crore Scorpene submarine project at Mazagaon Docks and the Rs 4,000-crore project for the 37,500-tonne Air-Defence Ship (ADS) at Cochin Shipyard, for instance, is already underway. While the six Scorpenes will be ready between 2012 and 2017, the ADS will be fully operational only by 2014 or so.
The Navy, of course, is eagerly awaiting the induction of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (the 44,570-tonne Admiral Gorshkov undergoing a refit in Russia), with its 16 MiG-29K jet fighters, in end-2008.
The other indigenous projects include three Shivalik-class stealth frigates and three Kolkata-class destroyers at Mazagaon Docks; four anti-submarine warfare corvettes, two fast-attack crafts and three landing ship tankers at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) at Kolkata; and three offshore patrol vessels at Goa Shipyard Ltd.
Copyright ©2006Times Internet Limited.