Corvettes of Indian Navy : News and Discussions
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The ASW-SWC projects at full pace. 16 ships ordered, 8 each from CSL & GRSE. Both the shipyards currently have 5 ships each under-construction. So a total of 10 ships under construction. The Navy wanted the deliveries to start by 2022 & continue till 2026.
The 1st ship was laid down in 6th August 2021 during the peak of 2nd wave of COVID & is expected to be commissioned by October 2022. So the 1st ship will go from laid down to commissioned in ~14 months despite COVID. At this rate all of the 16 ships will be commissioned by the end of 2023.
The ASW-SWC project vessels are meant to succeed the Abhay class corvettes. The Abhay class were customized Soviet Pauk-class corvettes, we acquired 4 ships in the early 90s. One of the 4 was decommissioned in 2017. So the ASW-SWC project will replace 3 ASW corvettes with 16. Also the newer ASW-SWC have twice the displacement of the Abhay class.
The main gun of the ASW-SWC will probably be a OFB's CRN-91 naval gun. We really need to have a naval gun between the 76 mm OTO Melara SRGM & the 30 mm OFB CRN-91. The BAE's 57 mm naval gun would do just fine. Ironically that gun has been offered to the IAF for its base defender AAA gun tender. BAE seeks to manufacture the gun in India in co-operation with Mahindra Defence. BAE's eventual goal is to offer the gun to the Navy. The Navy has not expressed a need for it yet.
So I guess we are going with the CRN-91. It is a combat proven weapon, but it has very limited anti-ship capability. The gun used optical sign based targeting, so there is no need for a BEL Lynx-U2 GFCR.
The ASW-SWC will also get 2 Remote Control Weapon Systems (RCWS) armed with a Browning 0.50 cal machine gun. The RCWS is produced at OFB Trichy. Here is a pic of the 1st consignment of RCWS that the IN & ICGS ordered:
Further the ASW-SWC will get the L&T produced RBU-6000 launchers. The new extended range rounds will definitely be included. The ships will be armed with 4 tube launchers for firing 533mm heavy torpedoes or 6 tube launchers for 324mm light torpedoes. The torpedoes will be either Varunastra HWT, Sheyna LWT &/or ALWT. The bow mounted sonar will probably be the HUMSA. The towed sonar is probably the only imported component.
Nice summary. I really like the ASW-SWC program for its order size and speed, and also the realistic configuration with high Indian component in FIGHT category. These ships are also water jet powered - in fact going to be the biggest IN ships with water jets. So expect good speed and maneuverability.
CRN-91 was a good innovation for the time, and is probably still good enough for ICG. I think it boils down to cost - if you are willing to spend and go for a solution which has deck penetration you might as well go with 76mm which is also quite compact.
40mm bofors is a good option in naval role as it also has anti aircraft capability + low cost ammo and commonality with army and coastal batteries. But in this day and age you want automation and Navy has not developed such a gun so far. Perhaps there are synergies from Army upgrade program?
CRN-91 was a good innovation for the time, and is probably still good enough for ICG. I think it boils down to cost - if you are willing to spend and go for a solution which has deck penetration you might as well go with 76mm which is also quite compact.
40mm bofors is a good option in naval role as it also has anti aircraft capability + low cost ammo and commonality with army and coastal batteries. But in this day and age you want automation and Navy has not developed such a gun so far. Perhaps there are synergies from Army upgrade program?
12.7mm SRCG is a good choice - to be honest ICG could just replace CRN-91 with this weapon as they dont seem to be interested in any serious firepower.
Oh, that explains things. I saw the video of the keel laying ceremony & was wondering why there was the L&T logo on the poster. I thought L&T might be doing some hull block manufacturing work at their Kattupalli shipyard for this project.
I guess it makes good sense to use the waterjet propulsion on ships meant for shallow waters. L&T's waterjet propulsion systems have been proven to the Indian Coast Guards with the Coasts guards inducting 54 boats of the L&T-class fast interceptor. Given the close relationship between the ICG & the IN it is understandable why the Navy would put their faith in the new waterjet propulsion systems.
Although the L&T-class fast interceptor has 1/10th the displacement of the ASW-SWC boats. So the propulsion systems would need to be scaled up.
I am hoping for the same. L&T's Sudarshan CIWS looks like it could be easily navalised. There are many advantages to having the Sudarshan navalised. To name some: besides the commonality of ammo & spares, no deck penetration, FCR & CCD/IIR targeting systems integrated etc.
It makes good business sense for L&T to navalise it. There are many large OPVs of both the Navy & the Coast Guards that can use this.
With 30 mm they can take out wooden boats, smaller fishing trawlers & skiffs. With 12.7mm even that much anti-ship capability would be missing.
The ICG is more of a police force than military force. But given our neighbourhood scaling down guns can't be good idea.
For the Indian Navy, the DAC accorded AoN for procurement of Next Generation Corvettes (NGC) at an estimated cost of approx. Rs 36,000 crore. These NGCs will be versatile platforms for variety of roles viz. surveillance missions, escort operations, deterrence, Surface Action Group (SAG) operations, Search & Attack and Coastal Defence. These NGCs would be constructed based on new in-house design of Indian Navy using latest technology of ship building and would contribute to further the Government’s initiative of SAGAR (Security and Growth for all in the Region).
pib.gov.in
Defence Acquisition Council, headed by Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh, clears proposals worth Rs 76,390 crore, in major boost to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’
Following Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s clarion call for ‘Aatmanirbharta’, D
pib.gov.in
The expensive stuff like transmission, engines , Weapons are assembled under licence usually. That's import duty + GST on the original price.
Doing rough calculations, it's around 585 mil dollars a vessel. Now for say a CODAD(maybe CODLAD) 3500 ton vessel, anti ship , anti air, sonar (HMS and TAS) , torpedos.... It's kind of only slightly more expensive. The Meko class Frigates being built for Egypt will be like 500 mil dollars. Our NGC will have similar specs.
It was seven earlier.
Looks like IN wants frigates classified as corvettes. An innovative way to bypass the sanctioned frigate numbers I suppose.
P17As more like destroyers , P28As to be frigates and NGMVs to be Corvettes... One step ahead.
Constellation-class frigate - Wikipedia
By the US next generation frigate standard, the so called "IN destroyers" are infact an equivalent to a frigate, not a destroyer.
Constellation-class frigate - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
By the US next generation frigate standard, the so called "IN destroyers" are infact an equivalent to a frigate, not a destroyer.
Shuklaji, the next generation P18 is expected to be around 13000 tons. what is that you want to prove?
Maha lingam, what i am trying to tell is that the current destroyers we using equivalent to US frigates under construction. You have any different opinion on ir?