Indian Navy News and Discussion
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:17 am
News and discussions about Indian Navy, Bharatiya Nau Sena.
Voice of the Republic
https://forum.bharatganrajya.com/
At 9am on the coming Monday, India’s new defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman will oversee her first warship commissioning ceremony. At the naval dockyard in Visakhapatnam, she will flag into service the INS Kiltan, India’s third Project 28 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvette. But there’s a significant difference between the Kiltan, and the two class types — INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt — that came before her. A 100-tonne difference.
While the Kamorta and Kadmatt are built entirely of steel (DMR249A special grade high-tensile steel developed by SAIL in India), the Kiltan’s entire superstructure has been constructed with carbon fiber reinforced plastic — instantly shaving off 100 tons in weight from the brand new submarine hunter.
Apart from the weight saving, top sources in the Indian Navy said the advantages of the new material are four fold: (a) It provides essential corrosion resistance to the exposed superstructure, (b) improves sea-keeping ability by increasing metacentric height (a measure of the initial static stability of a floating body). And finally, (c) the use of non-metals reduces radar signature and boosts stealth specifically by suppressing extremely low frequency electromagnetic radiations.
Sources also said the Kiltan will be stealthier, more agile and a more survivable ship at sea than the two previous P28 corvettes. Weight gain from radar signature reduction work had extracted a significant price on the ship’s nimbleness and top speed during the final design stages. The decision to explore a composite superstructure was decided as an imperative for the two final ships. The Kiltan will cruise a shade faster than the two previous ships at about 24 knots.
The P28 corvette class, built by the state owned Garden Rearch Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) in Kolkata, are nearly 90 per cent indigenous, says its maker. While the two ships in service are finding their feet, the class ran into rough weather with the national auditor earlier this year over delays and the fact that the ships still don’t have their full complement of armament. The Kiltan, for instance, should have been delivered by July 2014 according to the original project contract.
But for all that’s progressive about the new ship, like its predecessors, it continues to be without an advanced towed array sonar — inexplicable contracting delays have meant the P28 class, purpose-built as submarine hunters, don’t have the primary sensor required for the task and for evasion of enemy submarines, a troubling absence that the navy has sought to downplay amidst the atmosphere of welcome for a new indigenous warship. Livefist has learnt that ATAS kits should be arriving soon for test and retrofitment on the three P28s and the fourth ship that will be commissioned next year.
UPDATE: The Indian Navy just issued this official statement on the Kiltan:
written by Rajat Pandit, so take it fwiwThe Navy is ramping up its new "mission-based deployments" in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Malacca Strait, with warships on round-the-clock patrols to meet any operational eventuality from conventional threats and maritime terrorism to piracy and humanitarian disaster relief.
There are 12 to 15 destroyers, frigates, corvettes and large patrol vessels on long-range deployments in the IOR at any given time now, which are backed by naval satellite Rukmini (GSAT-7) and daily sorties by Poseidon-8I maritime patrol aircraft to keep tabs over the vast oceanic expanse.
The plan is to deploy "mission-ready warships" and aircraft along critical sea lanes of communications as well as "choke points" ranging from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Aden to the Malacca Strait and Sunda Strait. "This will be done on a 24x7 basis round the year, with the warships being sustained and turned around on station. The Indian Navy has emerged as the net security provider and first responder in the region," said a senior officer.
If a Shivalik-class stealth frigate is currently patrolling the Bay of Bengal towards Bangladesh and Myanmar, then a Teg-class frigate is in the vicinity of Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles. Similarly, while frigate INS Trishul is deployed for anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden, a Kora-class corvette is prowling around the Andaman Sea.
This "rebalancing of deployments", of course, is also in response to China sending its warships and submarines into the IOR on a regular basis over the last few years. At least three nuclear and four conventional Chinese submarines, for instance, have been tracked in the IOR since December 2013, as earlier reported by TOI.
The Indian Navy, which currently has 138 warships and 235 aircraft and helicopters, incidentally has plans in place to become a 212-warship and 458-aircraft force by 2027 to protect the country's huge geostrategic interests.
"The four-day naval commanders' conference under Admiral Sunil Lanba, which kicked off on Tuesday, will review and fine-tune this mission-based deployment policy to enhance its effectiveness," said another officer.
"The Navy is pursuing the PM's vision of 'Sagar' (security and growth for all in the region) in a deliberate manner through security cooperation and capacity building initiatives with other nations in the region," he added.
Apart from slowly upgrading military infrastructure in the strategically-located Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, which straddles major global trade routes and can be used as a pivot to counter Chinese moves in the IOR, the Indian Navy is also stepping-up its cooperation with other navies in the region through a series of exercises, coordinated patrols, training exchanges as well as supply of equipment.
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Patrol vessel INS Sukanya, for instance, reached Belawan in Indonesia on Tuesday to take part in a coordinated patrolling and bilateral exercise there. India has also offered to train Indonesian Navy in submarine warfare operations, on the lines of training already being provided to the Vietnamese Navy.
Under the "Act East" policy, the intention is to progressively expand military ties with Japan and ASEAN countries like Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. "The Indian approach of providing equipment and training is increasingly finding favour in the region. The idea that there can be no growth without security is well understood," said another officer.
Underlining the Navy's growing closeness to the US Navy and its disillusionment with Russia, American members of a joint working group (JWG) on aircraft carrier cooperation have been allowed to spend two days on board the Russian-built aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya in Goa on Monday and Tuesday. The Navy's tilt towards Washington may not surprise Moscow any longer. But Russian eyebrows will surely be raised at US admirals visiting a Russian aircraft carrier, operating Russian aircraft. On November 3, the JWG will meet again in New Delhi to discuss taking forward