Concerns grow about Navy’s acquisition plans as INS Mahendragiri gets inducted

Kolkata: Even as the Indian Navy inducted its sixth advanced stealth frigate on Saturday, concerns remain regarding its plans to expand the fleet to 200 warships by 2035.

The Navy’s proposal to acquire eight Next Generation Corvettes (NGCs) under Project 28A seems to have run into heavy weather at the last minute.

Despite the bidding process for the NGCs being completed, a final nod is awaited from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

There are some who believe that the CCS has questioned the justification of these missile corvettes at a time when the Frigates are being inducted.

The NGCs would be armed with surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, just as the advanced frigates are.

With China helping Pakistan in the building of eight advanced diesel-electric attack submarines with Air Independent Propulsion (with the first already been delivered), there is a feeling that the focus should be more on anti-submarine warfare platforms.

The Indian Navy operates four Kamorta-class anti-submarine warfare corvettes and is now receiving the 16 much smaller anti-submarine warfare shallow water crafts.

The latter are primarily for the protection of the coastal areas, islands and harbour mouths from underwater threats.

There is belief that the Navy could do with some more large anti-submarine warfare platforms that can operate in deep waters.

China has been sending submarines to the Bay of Bengal for quite some time now.

Once Pakistan gets delivery of all eight submarines, it will deploy them in the Arabian Sea and also operate in the Bay of Bengal.

India may start feeling the heat, once this happens.

“If the Navy needs to change plans, it should do it now. The warships under order at the moment are 11 Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels (NGOPVs) and the first deliveries are expected to start in the next 2-3 years. Even if fresh orders are placed soon, there is little possibility of deliveries before 2030.”

It has been nearly three years now since any fresh orders were placed by the Navy. The last major order was for the 11 NGOPVs that was concluded on March 30, 2023. While seven of these are being built by Goa Shipyard Limited, work is underway for the remaining at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited in Kolkata.

Apart from the NGCs, the Indian Navy has plans to order Next-Generation Destroyers (NGDs) at an estimated cost of Rs 80,000 crore. These heavily-armed, stealth warships will be a successor of the Vishakapatnam-class.

It also wants deliveries for the AIP-equipped next-generation conventional submarines under Project 75 (I) to commence by 3033.

The Navy also has the Project-17 Bravo (P-17B) Frigates programme. This is a Rs 70,000 crore project for Next Generation Frigates with advanced structural stealth, integrated electric propulsion, and enhanced Vertical Launching System missile cells.

lnitial clearance has also been granted by the Union government for four huge 32,000 Landing Platform Docks or LPDs.

IANS