New Delhi: About 200 personnel from the Indian Navy are in Russia to carry out acceptance trials of the first of the two stealth frigates that is being built in Kaliningrad as part of a USD 2.5 billion deal.
If all goes well, the first ship, christened Tushil (shield in Sanskrit) by the Indian Navy, should be in by mid-September.
The next ship, Tamal, would be delivered to India by early next year, sources in the defence establishment here said.
They added that the two more frigates being built at the Goa Shipyard as part of the deal with Russia are progressing and the first ship will be launched soon.
The two ships being built at the Yantar shipyard in Russia were originally meant to be delivered at the end of 2022 but got delayed because of the Covid crisis, payment issues between the two countries and the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
Incidentally, the gas turbine engines fitted on the ship are from Ukraine’s Zorya- Mashproekt, which India had to procure directly, after which it was sent to the Russian shipyard.
Following Crimea’s reunification with Russia in 2014, its ties with Ukraine went for a toss and Moscow stopped importing the engines from the Ukrainian firm.
India had to, therefore, procure and transfer the same to Russia, which also needed Ukrainian permission.
India had, in 2016, inked an inter-governmental agreement with Russia for four frigates, a follow-on of the Talwar-class vessels, and its contract was signed at the end of 2018.
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According to the deal, two ships are to be built in Russia, while the other two are to be built at the Goa Shipyard in India with technical collaboration from Russia.
The Yantar Shipyard has also manufactured three of the six Talwar-class frigates that are in service with the Indian Navy.
ThePrint had visited the Yantar shipyard in 2019. The hulls for the two ships had already been cut for the Russian Navy, but remained mothballed for several years.
The new ships will have 22 new systems, including Indian specific navigation, communication and weapons.
The Navy had earlier said these ships are based on its specific requirements to meet the entire spectrum of naval warfare in all three dimensions of air, surface and sub-surface.
The ships with a potent combination of state-of-art Indian and Russian weapons and sensors are equipped to operate in littoral and blue waters, both as a single unit and as consort in a naval task force.
They feature “stealth technology” in terms of low radar and underwater noise signatures. These ships are being equipped with major Indian supplied equipment such as surface-to-surface missiles, sonar system, surface surveillance radar, communication suite and anti-submarine warfare along with Russian surface-to-air missiles and gun mounts.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhari)
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