Indian Navy and Naval Aicraft: News

MUMBAI, JANUARY 3:



The Indian Navy is looking to acquire 12 US-2i (Utility Seaplane Mark 2) amphibious aircraft from ShinMaywa Industries, Japan.The supply is result of pact between Japan and India signed last month

Both the countries recently inked an agreement to facilitate the export of the amphibious search-and-rescue (SAR) aircraft to India. The deal is estimated at $1.65 billion.

Sources indicated that during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to India on December 12, the two countries signed an accord related to the ‘transfer of defence equipment and technology co-operation’.

Joint research
The “agreement provides a framework to enhance defence and security co-operation by making available to each other, defence equipment and technology necessary to implement joint research, development and production,” sources pointed out.

The Indian signatory to the accord was S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary, while Kenji Hiramatsu, Ambassador of Japan to India, was the Japanese signatory.

Security measures
Another agreement was signed concerning security measures for the protection of classified military information, between Indian signatory G Mohan Kumar, Defence Secretary, and Hiramatsu.

The two countries had earlier expressed their intention to explore potential future projects on defence equipment and technology cooperation such as US-2 amphibious aircraft. ShinMaywa Industries, the manufacturer of the US-2 amphibious aircraft, has already initiated discussions with several Indian companies to reportedly assemble the aircraft in India.

Some of the names include Mahindra Defence, Hindustan Aeronautics, Tata Aerospace, L&T and Pipavav Defence.

The version that is being offered to India is the US-2i. Sources indicated that the basic capability of the US-2i aircraft that India has asked for is the same as the US-2.

Only certain equipment changes have been made to cater to the Indian Navy’s role requirement, according to the RFI (request for information).

Two-decade presence

Incidentally, ShinMaywa Industries has been present in India for around 20 years, and provided aerobridges for airports and has set up waste water treatment pumps across the country.

The US-2 is the first Japanese aircraft offered to India.

Sources said two US-2i would be imported first, off-the-shelf, while the other 10 would be manufactured in India, under technology transfer arrangements by ShinMaywa Industries with an Indian partner.

Currently, the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force currently operates seven US-2s.


http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/navy-set-to-get-amphibious-aircraft-from-japanese-co/article8061630.ece

Indian Navy commissions second Kamorta-class ASW corvette

The Indian Navy's second Project 28 (P 28) Kamorta-class anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvette, INS Kadmatt (P 29), was commissioned into service at Visakhapatnam on 7 January.

The corvette was delivered to the navy by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) on 26 November 2015.

The P 28 corvettes, built from locally sourced DMR 249A steel, are largely fitted with licence-built weapons and sensors and indigenous combat management and fire-control systems. According to the navy, "about 90 percent" of the ship is indigenous; it is unclear, however, what metrics have been used to measure this.

The ships' design also contains several signature management features, including an 'x'-shaped hull form to reduce radar cross-section, a raft-mounted propulsion system to reduce vibration, and an infrared signature suppression system.

Displacing 3,500 tonnes, the 109 m-long corvettes have a top speed in excess of 25 kt and a range of 3,450 n miles. The ships' complement is 13 officers and 180 sailors.

The ASW-focused combat system includes four heavyweight torpedo tube launchers and a pair of 12-barreled RBU6000 rocket depth-charge launchers featuring several design improvements incorporated by Larsen & Toubro. It is not known if the locally developed Mareech anti-torpedo decoy system has been installed. The fire-control system is the Bharat Electronics IAC Mod C system.

While the ships are fitted with a Humsa-NG bow-mounted sonar, an Atlas Elektronik towed array sonar set will be fitted in due course. The navy added that the ships are also to be fitted with vertical launch surface-to-air missiles.

The next two ships-in-class, Kiltan and Kavaratti , are currently fitting out at GRSE in Kolkata. These two ships have a composite superstructure, supplied by Sweden's Saab Kockums, designed to reduce top weight. They are likely to enter service in late 2016 and 2017.

The Indian Navy’s use of Russian language to communicate during the 1971 strike on Karachi harbour proved crucial in the success of the operation.


In the mid 1960s, when the Indian Navy began to acquire equipment from Russia, there was hardly anyone within the service who knew the Russian language. That began to change as India ramped up its purchases of high-octane hardware from Russia. By 1970, dozens of Indian seamen, mainly those from the 25th Missile Squadron, were undergoing naval training in Vladivostok.

Based at Mumbai, the 25th Missile Squadron was equipped with brand new Russian Osa class missile boats armed with Styx missiles. It proved to be a brilliant decision as these small vessels were to soon undertake the most spectacular mission of the 1971 War.

As the Pakistan Army started the systematic genocide of its own Bengali citizens in its eastern half, in the process sending 10 million refugees into India, war became a matter of time. In the summer of 1971, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called a meeting of the three service chiefs and told them to prepare for war, the Indian Navy’s Admiral S.M. Nanda requested clearance for an attack on the oil installations in Karachi. Since it was Pakistan’s main trading port, a successful attack would also ensure an economic blockade of Pakistan.

Knowing that a war in the subcontinent wouldn’t last long, the navy planned to hit Karachi on the very first day that Pakistan attacked India. Based on the success or failure of the first attack, more raids could then be launched.

War breaks out

Pakistan Air Force jets attacked Indian airfields on the evening of December 3, 1971 and the Indian Navy decided to attack on the night of December 4. In order to inflict maximum damage and to confuse the enemy, the raid was to be coordinated with a strike by the Indian Air Force on Karachi harbour.

NAVY SPEAKS RUSSIAN

In 2011 a naval contingent of 152 officers and sailors of the Indian Navy travelled to St Petersburg for training on board the 45,000 tonne aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. All members of that crew were imparted Russian language skills.


Because the shore defences in Karachi had six-inch guns, the Indian Navy’s destroyers with their four-inch ones were not suitable for the task. That left the navy with the Osa missile boats with their Styx missiles. Being a coastal defence vessel, the Osa did not have the range to attack a distant port, so the only way out was to tow the ships from Mumbai to Porbandar.

Petya frigates were to follow at a slower speed but stay not too far away from the rendezvous. Naval Headquarters and the HQ of the Western Naval Command were to listen in on Pakistani wireless circuits and pass the relevant intelligence to the attacking force.

Radio silence was critical during the mission but especially while approaching the harbour at night. This was because the Pakistanis had an advanced surveillance radar station gifted by the US under the Suparco defence treaty. If it spotted the Indian ships, the element of surprise would be lost.

Language advantage

A key – and unusual – advantage with the Indian Navy was the Osa crews’ fluency in the Russian language. Communication between the attacking vessels, Naval HQ at Mumbai and the IAF was extensively in Russian.

This was done to fool the Pakistani naval intelligence before the commencement, and during the attack. The enemy could not connect the chatter on the radio waves to any offensive sea movements by the Indian Navy.

In fact, Pakistani intelligence believed the radio chatter came from the Russian Navy’s detachment located further south in the Arabian Sea. They thought the Russians were manoeuvring in response to the US Navy’s movements in the region.

The Osas used their missiles with devastating impact in two separate raids. IAF aircraft returning from a diversionary raid on Masroor airbase described the fire as the “biggest bloody blaze in the whole of South Asia”. The fire was also seen from space by American astronauts on board Spacelab.

Impact on India-Russia relations

In 'Transition to Eminence: The Indian Navy 1976-1990', former vice admiral G.M. Hiranandani writes that in the early years of Russia-India naval cooperation, the relationship matured extremely slowly because of two main factors. One, there was "a near total paucity of naval personnel who knew the Russian language". Secondly, there was the extreme secretiveness – bordering on paranoia – of the Russian specialists who came to India.

"These factors combined to constrict the interaction that was so essential for coping with the new Russian technologies and procedures," Hiranandani writes. "Interaction improved slowly as the two sides got to know each other. It was after the 1971 War that interaction rose exponentially."

The Indian Navy’s innovative use of Russian missile boats in the attacks on Karachi led to two significant developments. "Within India, the Government and the nation became aware for the first time since independence in 1947 of the contribution that naval operations could make to national policy objectives and how the Navy's swift achievement of regional maritime supremacy had hastened the end of the war. This led, during the 1973 and 1975 Defence Reviews, to the government's ready acceptance of the Navy's requirements for the acquisition, from Russia, of ships, submarines and aircraft to fulfil long deferred requirements."

“Within the Russian Navy respect had developed for the way the Indian Navy had used what Russia had supplied. The Russian side responded positively to the Navy's requests for progressively better equipment in future acquisitions.”

The early ships and submarines in the Indian Navy had been designed for the Russian Navy, which operated in the cold and dry climate and in cold, low salinity seas. They were not meant to operate in the hot and humid climate and the warm, high salinity, corrosive seas of the tropics. That changed with better communication between the military personnel on the two sides.

Russian "guarantee specialists" deputed to India reported all shortcomings and improvements considered essential for operations in tropical conditions back to the Russian manufacturers. Based on the feedback received, the Russian side "tried its best that each successor series of Russian acquisitions became better than their predecessors".

Clearly, communication is an important force multiplier in India-Russia relations.

http://in.rbth.com/blogs/stranger_than_fiction/2016/01/11/how-the-indian-navy-used-russian-to-hoodwink-pakistan_558087

India requested four countries to offer fighters for its new aircraft carrier INS Vishal. Among them Rus with its MiG29K.



Source: http://ru.euronews.com/newswires/3131371-newswire/

Militarov wrote:India requested four countries to offer fighters for its new aircraft carrier INS Vishal. Among them Rus with its MiG29K.

Source: http://ru.euronews.com/newswires/3131371-newswire/

Ok, what the hell is going on here, first i hear talk of navalised Rafale and now this, they already have the Mig-29K on there other carrier, why the hell would they want another aircraft for the same role (it's like the hate there logistics department) and don't give me this diverse procurement crap, that BS and you know it, anyway someone's obviously get payed under the table here.

AlfaT8 wrote:

Militarov wrote:India requested four countries to offer fighters for its new aircraft carrier INS Vishal. Among them Rus with its MiG29K.

Source: http://ru.euronews.com/newswires/3131371-newswire/

Ok, what the hell is going on here, first i hear talk of navalised Rafale and now this, they already have the Mig-29K on there other carrier, why the hell would they want another aircraft for the same role (it's like the hate there logistics department) and don't give me this diverse procurement crap, that BS and you know it, anyway someone's obviously get payed under the table here.

Well, its still "offers" gathering phase. Navalised Rafale variant was mentioned long ago as an option for future carriers. Thing is they now want other choices on table too, i assume F35 (F18SP is not very likely), Dassault Rafale, MiG29K andd.... and i got no clue what the 4th country could be. China is out of the question, status of both Typhoon and Gripen deck versions are unknown...unless they count their own proposed Tejas variant as 4th "country".

AlfaT8 wrote:

Militarov wrote:India requested four countries to offer fighters for its new aircraft carrier INS Vishal. Among them Rus with its MiG29K.

Source: http://ru.euronews.com/newswires/3131371-newswire/

Ok, what the hell is going on here, first i hear talk of navalised Rafale and now this, they already have the Mig-29K on there other carrier, why the hell would they want another aircraft for the same role (it's like the hate there logistics department) and don't give me this diverse procurement crap, that BS and you know it, anyway someone's obviously get payed under the table here.

well the point is the second aircraft carrer "VISJAL" is being considered as CATOBAR makes the problem even more complicated. If the Mig-29 can't be modified for catapults, you may end up with a situation that requires both types, with only the IAC-I being capable of operating the two simultaneously. so lets see how things roles out in future

moreover Mig-29Ks are only meant for Gorky and IAC-1 and its possible that CATOBAR capable aircraft will be chosen for IAC-2.This leaves Super Hornet, F-35C and Rafale-M as of now which are in active service. so SH and F35 can be ruled out as Indian never went for critical first line defense buys frm US so Rafale- N and if MIG29K can be modified for CATOBAR then its a strong contender

Pinto wrote:

AlfaT8 wrote:

Militarov wrote:India requested four countries to offer fighters for its new aircraft carrier INS Vishal. Among them Rus with its MiG29K.

Source: http://ru.euronews.com/newswires/3131371-newswire/

Ok, what the hell is going on here, first i hear talk of navalised Rafale and now this, they already have the Mig-29K on there other carrier, why the hell would they want another aircraft for the same role (it's like the hate there logistics department) and don't give me this diverse procurement crap, that BS and you know it, anyway someone's obviously get payed under the table here.

well the point is the second aircraft carrer "VISJAL" is being considered as CATOBAR makes the problem even more complicated. If the Mig-29 can't be modified for catapults, you may end up with a situation that requires both types, with only the IAC-I being capable of operating the two simultaneously. so lets see how things roles out in future

moreover Mig-29Ks are only meant for Gorky and IAC-1 and its possible that  CATOBAR capable aircraft will be chosen for IAC-2.This leaves  Super Hornet, F-35C and Rafale-M as of now which are in active service. so SH and F35 can be ruled out as Indian never went for critical first line defense buys frm US so Rafale- N and if MIG29K can be modified for CATOBAR then its a strong contender

Sure they can be modified for CATOBAR, modifications are not even that significant, thing is if India wants MiG29K or this is subtle way to pick Rafale without saying direct no to MiG.

I think it is good not to mix Vikrant and Vishal carriers. Vikrant will be operational in few years and there will be MiG-29K squadron together with naval Tejas, if they will be ready. But Vishal with CATOBAR will be ready somewhere between 2025 and 2030 and I think India more wish to get naval version of PAK-FA like the Russian carrier will get around 2030 than MiG-29K, which is already operational. I don't think Rafale or F/A-18 will give much difference comparing to MiG-29K. They want more modern jets like F-35 or PAK-FA.

I don't think, that is a big problem to modify MiG-29K for catapult operations. It is only a change at the nose wheel for a hook to catch a catapult. Structure of the plane is already strong enough for arrester hook landings. Anyway catapult launch will shorten service life for MiGs comparing to STOBAR as it will have high stress at both take off and landing comparing to STOBAR, where stressful is only landing.

In a move that will prove the resilience of the Russian machine and further strengthen the co-operation between India and Russia, MiG Russian Aircraft Corp has assured that it is ready to comply with any Indian request to supply additional MiG-29K/KUB aircraft for the in-development aircraft carrier INS Vishal of the Indian Navy.

Anastasia Kravchenko, spokeswoman of MiG Russian Aircraft, told RIA Novosti (via R&I Report) that the company was ready to supply the aircraft in case of new proposals being put forward by the Indian Defence Ministry.

"MiG and India's Ministry of Defence are long-term partners. We are linked by many years of successful cooperation. We would certainly be ready to supply fighter jets for the new aircraft carrier," she said. She was referring to the India's biggest aircraft carrier, INS Vishal, which is still in the design phase. INS Vishal, when ready, will be able to operate 50 aircraft.

INS Vikramaditya, the modified Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier currently in the Indian Navy inventory, operates MiG-29K/KUB aircraft. The Indian Navy has received 23 MiG-29K/KUB aircraft and had contracted Russia to supply 29 to operate from aircraft carrier.

Unlike INS Vikramaditya, INS Vishal is not likely to feature Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) but is likely to go in for Catapult Launched But Arrest Landing (CATOBAR) and Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch Systems (EMALS) -- something that will be featured in USS Gerald R. Ford when it is commissioned in 2016.

INS Vishal will also be a heavier with 65,000 tonnes of expected displacement and possible nuclear powered.

Business Line reported that India has sent letter of interest to several companies including that of Russia, US, France and UK for fighter jets that will be operating from the new aircraft carrier.

Experts have argued over diversifying carrier-based aircraft and going in for the MiG-29K/KUB as it is economically and strategically a better option. But with the Indo-US defence ties improving at a rapid phase and recent reports suggesting that India was interested in the naval version of Dassault's Rafales, India could look at the best option on the table.

Nevertheless, MiG-29K/KUB aircraft boasts of being a "4++" multirole aircraft that is "intended air-defence missions of naval forces, air superiority gaining, sea and ground targets destruction with the high precision guided weapons day and night and in any weather conditions."

The aircraft also has improved airframe with high composite material content, fly-by-wire flight controls with quadruple redundancy, reduced signature in radar range increased weapons load, increased internal fuel capacity and in-flight refuelling and more.

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/russia-willing-supply-more-mig-jets-ins-vishal-664307

Well well, looks like i got tricked by media hype, the Vishal wont even be ready before 2025/30 and there already hyping things up, on top of that it's a CATOBAR, even so India should just modify the Migs, a lot cheaper and less headaches for both logistics and maintenance.

Indian Maritime Security Strategy

India’s quintessential maritime character and vital geo-strategic location are twin factors that have defined her growth as a nation and evolution as a cosmopolitan civilisation. Her prominent peninsular orientation and flanking island chains overlook strategic sea lanes in the Indian Ocean, linking her security and prosperity inextricably to the seas. With rugged terrain and high mountain ranges dominating her Northern borders, India finds the seas to be the primary means of extending her connectivity and trade links with her neighbourhood and the world at large. Not surprisingly, over 90% by volume and 70% by value of her external trade even today is transacted by sea.

The last decade has witnessed India’s dependence on her maritime environment expanding substantially as her economic, military and technological strength grew, her global interactions widened and her national security imperatives and political interests stretched gradually beyond the Indian Ocean Region. There seems little doubt today that the 21st century will be the ‘Century of the Seas’ for India and that the seas will remain a key enabler in her global resurgence.

The Indian Navy today remains the principal manifestation of India’s maritime power and plays a central role in safeguarding and promoting her security and national interests in the maritime domain. The Navy’s roles and responsibilities have also expanded significantly over the years in response to changing geo-economic and geo-strategic circumstances.

These facts and factors were aptly reflected in the Indian Maritime Doctrine, promulgated in 2004 and revised in 2009, and the Freedom to Use the Seas: India’s Maritime Military Strategy, published in 2007. The two publications articulated the Navy’s maritime strategic outlook, defined the parameters of its employment, and provided overarching guidance for its evolution as a combat force. They, however, need periodic review to continue reflecting prevailing circumstances and remaining contemporary and relevant. Such an exercise has become necessary today owing to three significant developments of the past decade that affect India’s maritime security and the role of her Navy.

The first is the sweeping change that the global and regional geo-strategic environment has seen during the period. The shift in worldview from a Euro-Atlantic to an Indo-Pacific focus and the repositioning of global economic and military power towards Asia has resulted in significant political, economic and social changes in the Indian Ocean Region and impacted India’s maritime environment in tangible ways.

The second is a considerable change that India’s security-cum-threat calculus has seen during the period. In addition to persisting threats and challenges of the ‘traditional’ nature, India’s maritime security environment has become even more complex and unpredictable today with the expansion in scale and presence of a variety of ‘non-traditional’ threats. The ‘26/11’ terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008, for instance, demanded a re-evaluation of our security perceptions and devolved to the Navy the responsibility for India’s overall maritime security, including coastal and offshore security. This, in turn, called for a reorientation of our organisation, operating philosophy and force development plans.

The third is a national outlook towards the seas and the maritime domain, and a clearer recognition of maritime security being a vital element of national progress and international engagement. Today, India interacts more actively with littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region and employs maritime security engagement as a cornerstone of her regional foreign policy initiatives. There is also wider acknowledgement of the role the Navy can play in strengthening and enhancing maritime security in the region.

These developments have necessitated a revision of the Navy’s 2007 strategy and the promulgation of a follow-on edition. Titled Ensuring Secure Seas: Indian Maritime Security Strategy, this edition aims to highlight India’s contemporary maritime security considerations and reflect the incontrovertible link between secure seas and India’s resurgence in the 21st century.

This document covers a wide canvas. It seeks to provide readers in the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard, other maritime agencies and Armed Forces, as well as the Government and informed public, an insight into the rationale for strengthening India’s maritime security in the coming years. It has been compiled through an iterative and inclusive process, eliciting inputs from the Indian Army, Indian Air Force, Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, Indian Coast Guard, several defence-related ‘think tanks’, and a large number of acknowledged experts in maritime affairs within and outside the Navy.

The document intends to provide strategic guidance for the growth, development and deployment of the Navy in the coming years, and will need review and retuning as circumstances and conditions change and evolve. I am sanguine that it will provide a useful template to guide the professional perspectives of those in the white uniform, as well as those that are associated with, or interested in, strengthening India’s maritime security in different ways in the 21st century.



https://t.co/3K9UiPczL0

rehearsals for the international fleet review

Work on Stealth Frigates for Navy to Start Next Year at Magazon Docks

http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2016/01/work-on-stealth-frigates-for-navy-to.html?m=1

Work on with its order book full and set to grow, state-owned shipbuilder Mazagon Dock Ltd (MDL) expects that its collaboration with Italian shipbuilding firm Fincantieri will help it improve efficiency and processes, said Rear Admiral Rahul Kumar Shrawat (Retd), Chairman and Managing Director of MDL.

Fincantieri has been contracted by the MDL for technical collaboration on Project 17A, comprising seven stealth frigates for the Indian Navy. Four of these are being built by MDL, and three by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers. “We will be using an integrated construction methodology. Construction begins next year. It is a two-year build period,” Rear Admiral Shrawat told The Indian Express.

He said the cooperation with foreign shipbuilders helped augment capacity through improved processes. “We have already modernised ourselves, improved efficiency, in order to do things faster. The collaboration will further boost that,” said Rear Admiral Shrawat.

The stealth frigates under Project 17A being built in India have been seen as a boost for the Make in India initiative through a focus on domestic defence manufacturing.

Asked if he sees Indian shipbuilders ever exporting, Shrawat said the capability was certainly available at institutions such as Mazagon Docks Ltd, but the reality was that the government’s point of view would naturally be to utilise indigenous capacity first for the large and growing requirements of the Indian Navy. “If any country were importing frigates and destroyers, we would be a worthy competitor given that we build world-class ships,” he said, adding that licencing norms for weapon intensive platforms and the fact that Indian ship builders were already busy with orders for the Navy would have to be considered.

Indian Navy removed from service carrier-based fighter Sea Harrier.

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/1802365.html

MIG 29K has rightly taken over the role pf primary multi rile aircraft for IN now

George1 wrote:Indian Navy removed from service carrier-based fighter Sea Harrier.

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/1802365.html

I wonder if India will sell their Harriers to Thailand for their carrier, which doesn't have planes.

medo wrote:

George1 wrote:Indian Navy removed from service carrier-based fighter Sea Harrier.

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/1802365.html

I wonder if India will sell their Harriers to Thailand for their carrier, which doesn't have planes.

IIRC Thai navy never look for replacement since they get rid of those birds. Current approach is to sync up with airforce's gripen when they need air support/cover.
And I doubt if our navy can afford these even if Indian willing to sell.

The first Indian Scorpene out to sea



http://bmpd.livejournal.com/1813545.html

QUITOL /India/, March 28. /TASS/. The Indian Navy is keenly interested in purchasing Russian surface and submarine equipment and localization of the vessels’ manufacturing in India, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Alexander Potapov told reporters on Monday, commenting on his meeting with the Indian Navy representatives.

"The Indian Navy have displayed a keen interest in cooperating with us both in the sphere of surface and submarine fleet, starting from issues of purchasing ready-made equipment and localization of its production in India," Potapov said on the sidelines of the Defexpo India 2016 exhibition. He did not specify the equipment in question

The Defexpo India 2016 international exhibition is held in Quitol in the state of Goa in India on March 28-31. During the exhibition, the Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport is planning to hold talks with Indian partners to discuss joint projects for the Indian Armed Forces’ further upgrade.

The deputy industry and trade minister also said that during the exhibition he also intended to meet Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar and his deputy who is in charge of industrial production and the "Make in India" concept. "I think that during these discussions we’ll outline the plans that are now being implemented and the implementation of which will be accelerated," Potapova added.

According to previous reports, the relevant issues for the sides’ negotiations were leasing to India of the second nuclear-powered submarine of Project 971 (the first such submarine was received by the Indian Navy in 2012), as well as the supply of three frigates of Project 11356 (six ships of the Talwar project have entered service). Earlier in March, President of the Russian United Shipbuilding Corporation Igor Ponomaryov said that Russia was in negotiations on the sale to India of three frigates that had been designed for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Russia’s Rosoboronexport arms exporter said later that negotiations started on organizing the manufacturing of ships of this class in India.


In case of the technology transfer, the ships may be co-produced either in both countries or in India alone. India had acquired from Russia six Talwar-class frigates - three built by Baltiisky Zavod in St. Petersburg and three more by Yantar in Kaliningrad from 2003 to 2013.


A TASS source close to military-technical cooperation said previously that the Russian Defense Ministry had decided to reallocate the money earmarked for the second troika of Project 11356 frigates to pay for other ships it badly needs. The discussions between the military and the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation led to the opinion that the frigates can be offered for export.

All of the components of the first three Project 11356 frigates, including the Ukrainian-made propulsion plants, have been received. At the same time, the other three frigates lack propulsion plants, the production of which is to be launched by defense contractor Saturn in the city of Rybinsk under the import substitution program. Saturn can manufacture the power plants in 2019-2020 at the earliest, but the schedule does not suit the Russian Navy.



More:
http://tass.ru/en/defense/865491

Rs 64,000-cr Project to Build Submarines In India Creates Buzz

A Rs 64,000-crore (approx. $10 billion) project to build high-tech submarines in the country has created a buzz at a military systems’ exhibition in Goa, with foreign manufacturers eyeing alliances with domestic shipyards in hopes of kicking off one of the costliest projects under the Make in India programme.

Six advanced submarines will be built under project P-75I to scale up the navy’s undersea warfare capabilities and counter the swift expansion of China’s submarine fleet.

Russia, one of the competitors for the project, on Tuesday said it had begun its homework on the project aimed at building a second line of submarines in India.

“Negotiations are on...we are working on different proposals. We are open to cooperating with both public and private sector yards under the Make in India plan,” said Vladimir Drozhzhov, who heads military technical cooperation for Rostec Corporation. Rostec deals with manufacture and export of high-end products. Russia will compete for the project with its Amur 1650 submarines.

Five Indian shipyards have been shortlisted by a top government committee for the project.

The Germans, who supplied HDW Class 209 submarines to the Indian Navy, are also strong contenders for the project. German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems has offered India its HDW Class 214 submarine.

“It’s a very significant project for us. The Class 214 is a proven platform and we are ready to transfer critical technology on which we have spent a lot of money,” ThyssenKrupp managing director Gurnad Singh Sodhi said at DefExpo-2016. Foreign vendors are waiting for the defence ministry to release its policy on “strategic partners” to allow joint ventures with local firms for building warplanes, advanced submarines and helicopters.

The shipyards shortlisted by the high-powered panel are Mazagon Dock Limited, Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Cochin Shipyard Limited and private sector yards Pipavav and Larsen & Toubro. The new submarines will have the capability to operate underwater for several weeks with air-independent propulsion systems, greater strike power against land targets and improved stealth features that make them harder to detect. French firm DCNS plans to compete the the project with an advanced version of its Scorpene submarine.

Six Scorpene submarines are currently being built at the Mazagon Dock Ltd in Mumbai with technology from DCNS under a Rs 23,562-crore project codenamed P-75. Kalvari, the first of six diesel-electric attack submarines, is likely to be inducted into the navy by the year-end. The remaining five boats will be delivered by 2020. The 66-metre submarine can dive up to a depth of 300 metres to elude enemy detection.

The Scorpene project, plagued by cost overruns and missed deadlines, is important to the navy as its underwater capabilities have blunted over time. India operates 13 ageing conventional submarines and an Akula-II nuclear-powered attack boat leased from Russia. In contrast, China possesses 53 diesel-electric attack submarines, five nuclear attack submarines and four nuclear ballistic missile submarines.

Spain’s Navantia S-80 class and Sweden’s Saab Kockums’ with its A26 submarines have also shown interest in the P-75I. The exhibition in Goa is being attended by 1,055 Indian and foreign firms eyeing alliances under the Make in India initiative for the defence sector.

On Monday, Parrikar unveiled India’s new defence procurement rules aimed at accelerating the indigenisation plan and speeding up critical acquisitions.