Indian Navy conducted a maritime exercise, #IMEXTTX2026 at Maritime Warfare Centre in Kochi. The event brought together naval officers and experts from many countries in the Indian Ocean region to discuss growing security challenges at sea. @DefenceMinIndia said, Representatives from Bangladesh, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Timor-Leste took part in the exercise.
Do the nilgiri and vizag classes have space for additonal VLS cells or would a transition to universal VLS allow additional cells? how about the kolkata class? Will the p17B have universal VLS or at least something very close to universal VLS? or will we have to rely on the VLSRSAM to increase VLS count(not a particular fan of that)Hi all.
I wanted to do a combined VLS count of the Navy across its Principle Surface Combatants (PSCs)/frontline warships - as of FY 27-28 (so all major DDG and FFG ships under construction would be inducted/commisioned, and INS Rana is more or less out of service).
So, across 34 (30 modern and 4 near-obsolete hulls) frontline warships, the Navy has a magazine depth of 1,528 VLS (and the arm-launched pseudo-VLS) cells.
- Destroyers - 2 Rajput class [28 x 2 = 56] + 3 Delhi class [88 x 3 = 264 (Here I'm also counting in the 2 × Uragan SAM systems: 48 9M38M1 Shtil missiles)] + 3 Kolkata class [48 x 3 = 144] + 4 Visakhapatnam class [48 x 4 = 192].
12 x DDG total = 656. [realistically, you could remove the remaining Rajputs over FY 28/29, and get to a stable 600 destroyer VLS cells]
- Frigates - 2 Brahmaputra class [40 x 2 = 80] + 10 Talwar class [32 x 10 = 320] + 3 Shivalik class [64 x 3 = 192 (Here I'm also counting in the 24 single arm-launched Shtil-1 missiles)] + 7 Nilgiri Class [40 x 7 = 280].
22 x FFG total = 872. [realistically, ~800 modern, stable VLS count]
For standard comparison, as of 2024 [All surface combatant numbers only.]:
- PLAN: 4,300 - 4,864 VLS cells (~3.2x)
- USN: 8,400 VLS cells
@randomradio @Gautam @Parthu @Rajput Lion and others, please correct and/or add if needed.
VLS (specially for brahmos) is really heavy 3 tons just for a missile, you take in account the weight distribution when designing a ship it's highly unlikely that extra VLS could be added in a midlife refit. A 8+8 VLSRSAM might be possible if they really want it as its lighter than both the existing VLS systems used in modern INS's.Do the nilgiri and vizag classes have space for additonal VLS cells or would a transition to universal VLS allow additional cells? how about the kolkata class? Will the p17B have universal VLS or at least something very close to universal VLS? or will we have to rely on the VLSRSAM to increase VLS count(not a particular fan of that)
That's most likely an R77 not astra mk1