India joins elite club with commissioning of stealth warship

N C Bipindra
Mumbai, Apr 29 (PTI) India Thursday stormed into an elite
club of eight nations that build stealth warships with the
commissioning of the first indigenous stealth frigate INS
Shivalik, adding new fire power and muscle to its Navy.

Marking a 'red letter day' for the country, India's
Defence Minister A K Antony launched the Rs 2,300 crore ship
that has the capability to hoodwink enemy radars apart from
having protection from nuclear-biological-chemical warfare.
"INS Shivalik's commissioning is a red letter day for the
Indian Navy, armed forces, the government of India and the
entire nation," Antony said, unveiling the pennant of the
6,200-tonne warship at the Mazagon Docks (MDL) here. Shivalik
would be the first in the series of three frigates in this
class.
Apart from India, only the US, Russia, UK, France,
Sweden, Japan, Italy and China have the capability to build
stealth warships of this size and class.
'Shivalik', which marks another move in securing India's
sea lanes, is equipped with a judicious mix of imported and
indigenous weapon systems and sensors, including Barak
surface-to-air missiles and 'Shtil' air defence system.
Antony said the indigenous content for the new frigate in
terms of components was 80 per cent.
The MDL is building two other warships in this Shivalik
series to be named INS Sayahdri and INS Satpura which would be
commissioned by the end of this year and middle of next year
respectively under Project-17.
Seven more frigates would be built by the Defence PSU
shipyard under a follow-on order, codenamed Project-17A very
soon.
Antony said India's 7,500-km long coastline and maritime
interests make it imperative to protect our mainland and also
the sea lanes of communication.
"With the commissioning of the frigate, I have no doubt
our maritime interests are far more secure," he said.
He said the security situation in and around India's
neighbourhood posed many challenges and reiterated his call to
the Navy to maintain high levels of operational readiness at
all times.
He also referred, during his interaction with reporters,
to the increased piracy in the Gulf of Aden,Seychelles and
Mauritius seas to stress the need for a strong and potent
navy to counter these threats.
"In the coming years, protection of sealanes is going to
be a major challenge. So Indian Navy will have to perform its
duty to protect our sea lanes," he said. PTI NCB
MRD