Indian Naval News --> IAC on track, Viraat being refurbished

[aryan2007]

Well if you read comments of Admiral Mehta.



India plans to order 6 more submarines

I think it is quite understandable. Its their right. We have our rights. Chinese have theirs.

Exactly...no need to bring in poverty etc. we are not rich like teh arabs yet we are in greater need of a navy.. because our priorities are different...arabs don't need it because their priorities are different.. economy plays a role but if you have a healthy economy then it is alright..

 

[Neo]

I seriously doubt that Pakistan will be operating two carrier groups anywhere in the near future.

Aircraft carrier doesn't fit in our doctrine nor is it feasible to maintain two carrier groups to protect 1.000km coastline.
We're investing in MR and ASW instead to keep IN and other agressors away from our territorial waters. Stealth capable Raad will be a true nightmare for any hostile approach

Aircraft carrier is an offensive weapon, a must for any force with global ambitions. PN has regional interests, aircraft carriers just don't come into the picture.

 

[Neo]

India is a Poverty striken country. On my recent visit to Mumbai and Delhi I have seen people wearing pant and shirts digging in Garbage for Food items. God knows best as to what the people would be going through in small cities. India wants to be a super power at the Expense of it's people. Corruption is all over, Rs.10.oo can do a miracle.
All this buildup will go to waste to be a Super Power as another force is eyeing on India.

Appreciate your concern but please stick to the topic, i.e. Naval News...
Thanks!

 

[Contrarian]

I am just saddened by the fact that Gorshy may not actually come at all...
Vikramaditya is reeally needed by the Navy. If this occurs, the Navy's plans of having a 3 carrier force would be delayed by a decade.

India expected to field 2 CBG's by 2015. If Vikramaditya comes, then it will be so, otherwise it will be just the one Carrier-IAC.

What will the govt do with the planes then? Will the MiG 29K's be deployed on the IAC-1, if so then what is the N-LCA being developed for...
The planes might just be given to the IAF also...

For those who donot know, IAC-1 is ALREADY under construction. The steel cutting started a couple of years back.
OTOH, i hope the IAC-2 has CATOBAR...

 

[Neo]

Doesn't matter if Gorshy comes around or not IN should take delivery of the 16 Mig-29K she ordered and operate them from Landbase for training the crew for Gorshy or future IAC-1/2/3 Vessels.

Sofar IN has only worked with the Harrier, Mig-29K is a modern and more sophisticated and complex platform that needs time to evolve into IN doctrine.

 

[Contrarian]

Yes, but if IN operates MiG 29K's from the IAC-1, then the N-LCA will be for nothing. IN wanted to operate N-LCA's from its IAC-1. What will happen to the N-LCA. Also it has to be seen.

 

[hoodhood1]

The idea of "Blue Water" naval force should be superseded with "Green Water" naval force. This, to protect it's coastal waters.
Planning to rule from Horn of Africa to malacca Straights is much to much for IN.
Otherwise,I think it should be evenly distributed. From Horn of Africa to Kutch goes to PN and from there to Malacca Starights to IN (being a bigger Navy).

 

[KENT]

Otherwise,I think it should be evenly distributed. From Horn of Africa to Kutch goes to PN and from there to Malacca Starights to IN (being a bigger Navy).[/QUOTE]


It would be much more helpful to know how does PN comes into picutre? since the kind of a equation is quite difficult to digest.

 

[aryan2007]

India eyes nuclear submarine trials by 2009
Mon Dec 3, 2007 9:39pm IST

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India will be ready to test its first domestically built nuclear-powered submarine at sea by 2009, its navy chief said on Monday.

A long-running secret project, India's nuclear-powered submarine is said to be a 5,000-tonne modified version of the Russian Charlie-II class vessel.

Code-named "the Advanced Technology Vessel", the submarine will be capable of launching nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles and give India's navy an advantage over nuclear rival Pakistan.

"Scientists have confirmed that they (will) have the project ready for trials by 2009," the Press Trust of India quoted Admiral Sureesh Mehta as saying.

With about 140 ships in its fleet and dozens of new frigates and French Scorpene submarines to be delivered soon, India's navy is increasing its capabilities.

India leased for three years a nuclear-powered submarine from the former Soviet Union in 1988, and Mehta said there were plans for another similar agreement with Russia.

"We want the Russian nuclear submarine to enable our boys to train on how to operate nuclear reactors and platforms and other systems," he said.

Keeping pace with its new economic powerhouse image, India's military, the world's fourth largest, is on a modernising spree, trying to project power beyond its shores.

It is building a domestically-produced aircraft carrier and is also buying one from Russia.

India eyes nuclear submarine trials by 2009 | Top News | Reuters

 

[aryan2007]

Indian Navy on track to becoming 100% Indian
Ajai Shukla / New Delhi December 03, 2007


Discordant notes in the India-Russia defence relationship are accelerating India’s drive towards warship building capability.

This summer, Vice Admiral BS Randhawa, the Indian Navy’s Controller of Warships Production and Acquisition, visited the Russian shipyard, Sevmashpredpriyatiye (translation: Northern Engineering Works), near the city of Archangelsk.

He learned that the aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya (as the Admiral Gorshkov will be renamed), would reach India not just two years later than contracted, but also at twice the cost.

Such irritants, though, could soon be in the past. Now an ambitious programme for modernising defence shipyards is going to make the Indian Navy the first of the three services to start designing and building all its major fighting platforms within India.

Currently, amongst major naval powers, only the US, Russia and France build their own fleets entirely.

Before India becomes self-sufficient, Russia will get another billion-dollar order for three cutting-edge Krivak-III frigates. But the navy says that could be the last big order placed abroad.

Vice Admiral Randhawa told Business Standard, “Ordering abroad is the last resort and the Russian order is for just three ships. There is no plan to order any more beyond these. We are building a new line of frigates at (defence shipyards) Mazagon Docks Limited, Mumbai, and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Kolkata.”

While four warships are being built in foreign yards (the Gorshkov and the three Krivak class frigates), 38 naval vessels are currently being built in India.

The defence shipyards at Mumbai, Kolkata and Goa are building 30 warships, while the public sector Cochin Shipyard is building the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) and a nuclear submarine is being constructed at a facility in Vishakapatnam.

Private sector yards are constructing another six survey vessels. The ships being produced in India include three cutting-edge Project 15-A destroyers named the Kolkata class, and three Project 17 stealth frigates of the Shivalik class.

India’s three defence shipyards have already proved their ability to build world-class warships, but churning them out fast enough has been a bottleneck.

India’s Maritime Capability Perspective Plan (MCPP), a secret document that sets out the year-wise schedule for inducting new ships into service, demands an average of five new warships each year to replace an equal number that retire annually from the Navy’s 140-ship armada, after completing their service life of about 30 years.

The dockyards, so far, have managed a combined annual output of barely 3.5 vessels. This gap has, so far, been filled by imports.

Policy clarity could push output up now. After examining the American and Russian models of warship production, Vice Admiral Randhawa says that India has implemented its own model, which is a hybrid of the two.

In the US, the navy produces the basic design and then two private shipyards (e.g. Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics) compete to translate that into an actual warship. The yard that manufactures the better product is asked to build a number of ships in that series.

In Russia, there are several government-owned design bureaus, each producing a different kinds of vessel, i.e. different bureaus for destroyers and frigates, for submarines, and for aircraft carriers. Moscow decides what it needs and then simply asks the relevant design bureau to manufacture it.

In India, the Defence Procurement Policy—2006 (DPP – 2006) now specifies how warships will be produced. Like in the US, the Indian Navy will produce the functional design. Thereafter, like in Russia, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will nominate a defence shipyard to manufacture that series of ships.

The MoD’s next step is to modernise the three defence shipyards— Mumbai’s Mazagon Docks Ltd (MDL), Kolkata’s Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) and Goa Shipyards Limited — to churn out ships quickly from those designs. And for that, an ambitious modernisation plan is about to kick off.

Indian Navy on track to becoming 100% Indian

 

[aryan2007]

26 nations on board Indian Navy's maritime military bloc
Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:14:02 GMT

India World News | Home

New Delhi, Dec 3 - Indicative of India's growing clout on the global stage, the navy has floated a maritime military bloc comprising littoral states of the Indian Ocean and the response has been overwhelming with 26 countries already on board.

For the moment, however, China and the US have been excluded from the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) since they are not littoral states, Indian Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said here Monday.

Thirty-one countries, in a broad swathe from South Africa to Australia had been invited and 26 have confirmed their participation for the IONS foundation meeting here Feb 14-18, timed to coincide with the biennial Defexpo international exposition, Mehta told reporters ahead of the Navy Week celebrations from Tuesday.

'Pakistan has also been invited and it is for them to confirm they will attend,' he said in response to a question, adding that the biennial IONS initiative had the 'full backing' of India's external affairs ministry.

IONS would be conducted in two parts, with the first two days devoted to a seminar that would consider an overview of the maritime scenario in the Indian Ocean Region, discuss contemporary maritime challenges and ways to ensure synergy through cooperative approaches.

The next three days would be devoted a closed-door conclave of navy chiefs of the participating countries aimed at establishing mechanisms to mitigate security concerns of the region and develop interoperability among its navies.

According to Mehta, 'Many navies of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) look to India to promote regional maritime security. It is thus prudent that India launches an inclusive forum for discussing and taking forward issues of common interest.'

Elaborating, he said: 'While Southeast and East Asian countries of the (US-backed) Western Pacific Naval Symposium are heavily engaged in the maritime domain, there is an engagement deficiency in the Indian Ocean, particularly in the western Indian Ocean.

'Consequently, external players are rapidly forging new maritime security relationships. The establishment of a regional naval grouping would promote greater mutual interaction and curtail growing dependency on extra regional players in the region.

'This apart, the symposium will enable Indian Ocean nations address their problems without external assistance,' Mehta added.

26 nations on board Indian Navy's maritime military bloc : India World

 

[aryan2007]

Indian Navy to float global tender for maritime patrol aircraft
Submitted by Tarique on Mon, 12/03/2007 - 16:44.

* India News

By IANS

New Delhi : The Indian Navy will soon float a long-delayed global tender for maritime reconnaissance aircraft (MRA), a top military commander said Monday.

The navy is also in talks with the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for developing a rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to enhance its maritime surveillance capabilities, Indian Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said.

"We have completed our evaluations of various long range maritime patrol aircraft and a request for proposals (RFPs) should go out very soon," Mehta told reporters here ahead of the annual Navy Week celebrations from Tuesday.

The navy needs the aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of eight Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-42s that are on the verge of completing their service life.

A four-member Indian Navy team headed by a one-star officer had observed trials in July on MRA derivatives of the Airbus A-319 manufactured by EADS Spain and the Boeing P-8A Poseidon in the US.

Since neither of MRA derivatives exists, the flight trials involved simulations on the Airbus A-320 and the Boeing-737 platforms on representative flight profiles and mission system evaluations.

Boeing has offered India a customised version of the P-8A that is scheduled to fly in late 2009 with operational capability set for 2013. The Spanish platform too is expected to be ready around the same time.

Both manufacturers are seriously examining the possibility of partnering Indian companies to jointly develop communications, data-link and identification friend-or-foe (IFF) equipment as an added sales incentive, in keeping with New Delhi's policy of indigenising its defence requirements, officials said.

And, given the burgeoning India-US strategic partnership, the Pentagon also has pledged to make additional technical, military capabilities available to New Delhi as the P-8A enters into service with the US military.

Other bidders for the Indian Navy contract are Israel Aerospace Industries and Elta Systems with a Dassault Falcon 900 business jet derivative, Lockheed Martin with a refurbished P-3C Orion, and a Russian consortium with the upgraded Ilyushin Il-38SD.

The officials said that since the navy was more interested in longer range MRAs currently under development, it was "seriously considering" acquiring two or three of the existing shorter range aircraft as an interim measure to plug a vital operational void in patrolling India's vast coastline.

The officials said that the navy's existing surveillance assets are insufficient to monitor the country's 7,516 km coastline, 1,197 island territories and the 2.01 million sq km exclusive economic zone.

Apart from the Tu-42s, the navy currently operates two Il-38 MRAs upgraded to IL-38SD standards and equipped with the Sea Dragon system, 15 Dornier 228-101 aircraft and 12 Israeli Searcher and Heron-II unmanned aerial vehicles. Another three upgraded IL-38SDs are expected to join service by end-2008.

As for the rotary-wing UAV, the navy chief said this would be based on a helicopter that the HAL was manufacturing.

"I had personally initiated this project, based on a running helicopter that the HAL has indigenised. We chose HAL because we believe it can deliver a machine better than any other in the world," Mehta added.

While he was not forthcoming with details, it is learnt that the new machine is based on the Lancer light attack helicopter the HAL has derived from the reliable and proven Cheetah helicopter that is in service with the armed forces.

On its part, the Cheetah is the HAL version of the French Aerospatiale Lama SA 315 helicopter that is specially designed for operation over a wide range of weights, centres of gravity and altitude conditions.

Indian Navy to float global tender for maritime patrol aircraft | Indian Muslims

 

[aryan2007]

Russia builds second frigate for Indian Navy
Wednesday, 28 November , 2007, 15:10

Moscow: The Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, has started building a second frigate for the Indian Navy.

A spokesman of the shipyard said this is the largest contract so far. The first of the three frigates was laid down on July 27, and two parts of the ship's frame have already been completed.

The contract to build three frigates was signed in New Delhi July 14, 2006. The ships are to be commissioned in 2012.

This is the second contract for the delivery of Russian frigates to the Indian Navy. The first such contract, worth about $1 billion, was signed in November 1997 for the construction of the Tabar, Trishul and Talwar frigates.

The new frigates will differ mainly in their armament and equipment. In particular, they will be armed with the BrahMos multi-role supersonic cruise missiles (MRCM) created by the Indian-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace.

Russia builds second frigate for Indian Navy - Sify.com

 

[aryan2007]

Next generation shipbuilding for next generation frigates
Ajai Shukla / Mumbai December 04, 2007
“It takes half a century to build a navy,” said India’s Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta a year ago and he repeated that yesterday at a press conference in New Delhi.

India’s smallest service, which celebrates Navy Day today, is on track to build indigenously one of the most modern navies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Much of that construction is taking place here, at the Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) in Mumbai. Even with a host of craftsmen swarming over the four major warships being fitted out here, after having already been launched — three Shivalik-class frigates and one Kolkata-class destroyer — the ships radiate power as well as aesthetics.

India has developed a tradition of making not just capable but also beautiful warships. At a major International Fleet Review in the UK in 2005, the Duke of Edinburgh, a naval veteran himself, interrupted his schedule to compliment the INS Mysore as the handsomest warship in the review.

But the present construction facilities at MDL, and at the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) other two shipyards at Goa and at Garden Reach in Kolkata, are struggling to build enough warships to make up for the decade-long hiatus from the mid-1980s, when not a single warship was ordered due to paucity of funds.

In addition, the navy needs replacements for an average of five warships that complete their service lives each year. The MoD’s sharpest focus, therefore, is now on creating world-class shipyards that can churn out efficiently, the warships that the navy needs.

Vice Admiral Krishnan, the chairman of MDL, revealed to Business Standard that a global tender is being floated for a top-class foreign shipyard that will partner India’s defence shipyards in their transformation to the “modular” form of shipbuilding.

Within six months, some 8-10 global shipbuilders, including Northrop Grumman from the US, DCN from France, Hyundai from Korea, Hyundai, and British shipbuilder, Bath Iron Works, will each receive a Request for Proposals (RFP) for becoming India’s partner in modular shipbuilding.

The traditional method of building warships involves building the hull and then launching it into water. Once that is afloat, hundreds of craftsmen labour for months in cramped and dangerous conditions, installing heavy equipment, like engines and electronics, and crawling through the ship’s innards to lay hundreds of miles of electrical cables and pipelines.

In contrast, modular shipbuilding involves building the ship in huge 300-tonne blocks, in the friendly conditions of a “modular workshop”.

The craftsmen enjoy easier access, and once the blocks are ready, an enormous overhead “Goliath Crane” carries the 300-tonne blocks to a dry dock where they are assembled into a warship.

This modular method will be used to build the navy’s next-generation warships, three futuristic Project 17-A stealth frigates.

The foreign shipyard partner that wins the tender for modular construction will build one Project 17-A frigate abroad, using craftsmen from MDL and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.

This will be the learning process, after which MDL and GRSE will each construct one Project 17-A frigate in their new modular shipyards.

Secretary of Defence Production, KP Singh told Business Standard, “Either one or two (Project 17-A warships) will be constructed in the foreign yards, but by our men, so that they will get trained to those systems. We’ll be spending workers (on the construction)… that is the idea.”

The navy would have preferred to construct in Indian yards. Vice Admiral Birinder Randhawa, until last week the Indian Navy’s Controller of Warships Production and Acquisition, says that constructing one warship abroad is part of the price for getting the know-how for modular shipbuilding.

Admiral Randhawa says, “Nobody wants to part with this technology without getting orders in their own yard.”

While modular construction could make warship building faster, the MoD and the navy are also grappling with another major bottleneck in warship building: warship design. But there’s also a plan to overcome that hurdle.


Next generation shipbuilding for next generation frigates

 

[aryan2007]

After Gorshkov, frigates project faces delay

NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing acrimony over the huge delay and cost overrun in the refit of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, another big Indian naval project is the danger of running aground in Russia.

The Indian defence establishment is getting worried at reports emanating from Russia about problems dogging its Rs 5,514-crore (around $1.4-billion) project for construction of three more Talwar-class "stealth" frigates at Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad.
The feeling is that Russia is already setting the stage for demanding more money for the construction of the three frigates, apart from of course pushing back their delivery dates.

The Navy, in fact, is rushing an "overseeing team" to Yantar shipyard, which is not in such a good shape as far as infrastructure and financial health is concerned, in the next few days to keep a close watch on the project's progress, say sources.

While the keel for the first of these three 4,000-tonne guided-missile frigates was laid on July 27 at Yantar, the construction of the second one was formally launched only on November 27.

All this comes close after Russia's demand for a whopping $1.2 billion more to refurbish Gorshkov, after first settling to do it for $974 million in the overall $1.5-billion package deal signed in January 2004.

Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta has even gone public with his exasperation over the entire Gorshkov imbroglio, holding that it was perhaps time for India to rethink its long-standing defence ties with Russia. Though Russia is yet to officially communicate any demand for more money in the frigates' project, Russian officials are publicly holding that it will take "a minimum of $100 million more" to construct the three Indian warships at Yantar shipyard.

"A Russian media report has quoted Yantar shipyard director-general Nikolai Volov as saying that they would wish to increase the cost of the frigates' contract due to the falling US dollar exchange rate," said an official. The Rs 5,514-crore contract for the frigates, which are to be also armed with the 290-km BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, was signed in July 2006, with the delivery scheduled for 2011-2012.

The contract was signed despite India's bitter experience of huge delays in the delivery of the first three Talwar-class frigates, INS Talwar, INS Trishul and INS Tabar, inducted by the Navy in 2003-2004.
After Gorshkov, frigates project faces delay-India-The Times of India