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Mumbai,(UNI): The second of the Shivalik-class stealth frigates, envisaged as the “future ships” of the Indian Navy, has taken shape at the Mazagaon Docks Limited (MDL) here and is tentatively scheduled to be launched on June 4.
The first ship of this class, rated as one of the most potent and deadly platforms at sea, was launched on April 18 by Defence Minister George Fernandes in the presence of Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Madhvendra Singh.
Equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, high-tech communication systems and technology that prevents detection, the induction of these ships, in the next few years, signals a quantum leap of the Indian Navy as far as technology is concerned, sources at MDL, one of country's premier defence shipyards, told UNI.
Indian Navy officials said that the first of this class of ships is expected to be commissioned in the Western Fleet by 2007.
These stealth vessels are regarded as the “future ships of the Indian Navy”, they noted.
Three of these ships with a displacement of nearly 4,500 tonnes are being built under the Project 17, dock sources said.
The Union Cabinet had cleared the manufacture of these ships in 1997 and the keel of the first ship was laid in 2000 and for the second and third ships in 2002.
According to Naval experts, stealth is inclusion of special features, either smooth angled surfaces or radar absorbent composite material, reducing the radar cross section, making it less susceptible to detection.
The Shivalik-class ships would be indigenous like the Delhi-class destroyers and would be a larger and quieter version of the Talwar-class frigates, three of which were built in Russian shipyards.
The Shivalik-class ships is the major project that MDL is undertaking for the Indian Navy after the delivery of three Delhi-class ships in the late nineties — INS Delhi, INS Mysore and INS Mumbai.
As far as the Talwar-class is concerned, three such ships were built in Russian shipyards — INS Talwar, INS Trishul and INS Tabar.
The third one, INS Tabar is on its way to India after being commissioned in Russia. INS Talwar and INS Trishul have joined the Western Naval Command (WNC), the sword arm of the Indian Navy.
The Delhi-class, Talwar-class and Shivalik-class vessels would be frontline ships of the Indian Navy and will add to the sea-control power of the blue-water three-dimensional Indian Navy.
