Vice Admiral S.N. Ghormade lays the keel of the anti-submarine warship being built indigenously under a PPP model

ice Admiral S.N. Ghormade, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff, laid the keel of the first of the eight warships being indigenously built under the Navy’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASWSWC) project on August 6.

At the keel-laying ceremony at Kattupalli in Tamil Nadu on August 6.

Vice Admiral S.N. Ghormade, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff, laid the keel of the first of the eight warships being indigenously built under the Navy’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASWSWC) project on August 6. Keel-laying is a major milestone activity in the shipbuilding process and indicates the amalgamation of the various blocks in the construction of a ship.

These eight warships in the 700 tonne class, being constructed as part of the indigenous shipbuilding programme for the Indian Navy, are capable of full-scale sub surface-surveillance and coordinated anti-submarine warfare operations in tandem with surveillance aircraft. They also have the capability to interdict/destroy sub-surface targets in coastal waters. Given their strengths, these vessels will be deployed by the Navy for search and rescue missions in coastal areas and, in a secondary role, will be utilised to confront and prosecute intruding aircraft and lay mines on the ocean bed. The vessels will be equipped with highly advanced integrated platform management systems, propulsion machinery, auxiliary machinery, power generation and distribution machinery and damage control equipment.

The eight warships are being built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited (GRSE) under a unique Public Private Partnership model at the L&T Shipyard at Kattupalli in Tamil Nadu. GRSE signed a contract worth Rs.6,311 crore with the Ministry of Defence for the construction of the eight vessels in April 2019 after a competitive bidding process. The vessels are to be delivered between 2022 and 2026. They will be replacing the Russian-built Abhay-class corvettes that were commissioned into the Navy between 1989 and 1991.

Designed for a top speed of 25 knots and a complement of 57 personnel, these warships, according to the Vice Chief of the Naval Staff, will “be equipped with state-of-the-art underwater sensors and weapons and will boost the Navy’s anti-submarine capability”.

On August 6, the keel of the third warship of the Navy’s Survey Vessel Large (SVL) project was also laid. To be fitted with state of art equipment, the SVL ships will be capable of undertaking full-scale coastal surveys, deep-water hydrographic surveys, and determination of navigational channels/routes.