Close on the heels of acquiring the stealth frigate INS Teg last fortnight from Russia, Indian Navy is ready to commission two more ships, namely INS Tanaji and INS Sahayadri, in this month itself. While INS Tanaji will be a base depot ship commissioned today, INS Sahayadri will be the third ship of the Shivalik class of stealth frigates for the navy to be commissioned on July 21.
According to Indian Navy, the commissioning of the Base Depot Ship INS Tanaji will be held today at the Mankhurd Naval Base Station and Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma, Chief of Naval Staff will be the Chief Guest on the occasion. INS Tanaji is a 'Base Depot Ship' which will provide berthing and ship lift facilities to the Indian Navy.
As for the commissioning of the stealth frigate INS Sahyadri, it will be held at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai on July 21 with Defence Minister AK Antony as the Chief Guest. INS Sahyadri will be the third ship of the Shivalik class of stealth frigates and its construction has been completed at state-run Mazagon Dock Limited. The warship had gone out into the Arabian Sea for sea trials earlier this year.
INS Sahayadri is last of the three Russian-built Shivalik class frigates to be commissioned in July under the Project-17 of the Indian navy. The first two ships in the class are INS Shivalik and INS Satpura which are currently operating on naval missions in the Gulf of Aden. The three-ship Project 17 cost India nearly Rs.10 billion and it stands completed with the commissioning of INS Sahayadri this month.
Shivalik class frigates are 142-metre long, 17-metre wide warships that run on two Pielstick 16 PA6 STC diesel engines and two GE LM2500+ boost turbines in combined diesel or gas (CODOG) configuration. The Shivalik class frigates are mounted with various radars such as the MR-760 Fregat M2EM 3-D air search radar, four MR-90 Orekh radar, an ELTA EL/M 2238 surveillance and theatre alert radar, two ELTA EL/M 2221 search-track-and-guidance radar, ATAS-Thales Sintra towed array systems and BEL Aparna fire control radar.
The Shivalik-class frigates also have the HUMSA (hull-mounted sonar array) and BEL Ajanta electronic warfare suite to counter an enemy attack. The frigates also carry mix of Indian and foreign guns, torpedo launchers and cruise missiles besides carrying two choppers.
India plans to build seven more warships of this class in the future as follow-on under Project-17A. While INS Teg has recently been acquired, INS Tarkash and INS Trikand are the remaining two frigates to be delivered under Project-17A by Russia. INS Teg is an advanced version of Talwar class frigates that are fitted with an upgraded-suite of weapons and sensors. These three modified Krivak or Talwar III class guided missile frigates are being built at the Yantar Shipyard under a $1.6 billion. |