After never-ending wait, Navy commissions new warship without Trishul

CALCUTTA, APRIL 15: Rhino without a horn,'' is how the Navy describes its newest warship, Indian Naval Ship (INS) Brahmaputra, bearing t...

CALCUTTA, APRIL 15: “Rhino without a horn,” is how the Navy describes its newest warship, Indian Naval Ship (INS) Brahmaputra, bearing the crest of a raging rhino, commissioned yesterday. Touted as a state-of-the-art missile frigate, Brahmaputra joined the naval fleet without its main weapon system.

Trishul, the anti-missile system, is still in early stages and has not even been given to the Navy for user trials. So, the frigate does not have its “hard kill” measure, the surface-to-air Trishul missile system yet. There is a gaping hole in the warship where the missile is supposed to be installed. The Trishul is also expected to be an anti-missile system, a quick reaction short-range weapon to engage and destroy oncoming enemy missiles at sea.

Though the Navy is putting up a brave face, Brahmaputra at the moment is a tiger without its teeth. “But it still has sharp claws. The Brahmaputra has 16 Uran surface-to-surface missiles and its helicopters carry two long-range Sea Eagle air-to-surface missiles. The ship also has a close-in weapon system,” a senior naval official involved with the ship building said.

The ship, which took 12 years to reach the Fitting Out Jetty of the shipbuilders, is still to be ready and a “little work” is still required in the electrical and mechanical set-up. This when the mantra of the Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers (GRSE) is work is warship and their motto to build ships faster, better and cheaper. “So between the GRSE and the DRDO, it is the Navy which is the loser. And, of course, the nation,” added another official.

The gainer is most likely to be Israel, sources in the naval headquarters said. In case Trishul does not materialise soon, the Navy will acquire the state-of-the-art Barak anti-missile system to put on INS Brahmaputra. This, according to top-level sources, has enthused the sailors. “Though expensive, Barak is a tried and tested quick reaction anti-missile system. That is exactly what we have been looking for. We hope that Trishul would be given to us for user trials soon, but if that does not happen, the Navy will press ahead for the Israeli missile,” sources said.

But what till then? “Nothing. We are not going into war tonight are we?” an official at the naval headquarters asked. “We will have it soon and there are also plans afoot to have heat-seeking missiles deployed in the ship. Like the American Stingers, the Navy is going to deploy shoulder-fired IGLA M-2 missiles,” he added.

The Navy is also putting pressure on the DRDO to deliver on time. Yesterday Defence Minister George Fernandes berated the GRSE for having taken 12 years to build INS Brahmaputra. The Navy now hopes that a similar treatment would be meted out to the DRDO scientists to perform and show results. “But not too harshly. We have to indigenise. And whether we like it or not, all of us have to sink or sail together,” said the officer.

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After Brahmaputra, the GRSE is to make two more guided missile frigates — INS Betwa and INS Beas of the same design. “These teething troubles will not be there on those ships since the teeth (Trishul) would have been delivered to us by then,” he added.