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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, APRIL 11: The Navy is embarking on an ambitious project to build three stealth war ships indegenously. The stealth frigates being built are designed to dodge enemy radars and submarines and will be armed with the state-of-the-art weapon and radar systems.
The first of the three ships that are being initially built will join the naval fleet by 2004. “The frigates and ships have some signatures which radars spot. These ships will be built in such a way that its acquisitc and infra red signatures will be suppressed and that ships would be more or less invisible,” Rear Admiral Suresh Bangara, Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Operations) said.
“The radars in submarines catch acquistic signals. Other radars on ships also catch infra red signals. These stealth frigates are being designed to dodge the signals and their signatures will be suppressed,” another official said.
H S Kang, Director, Ship Building, Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) confirmed that the Navy had placed orders for Project-17 (Stealth frigates) with the MDL. “It would take about four to five years for the first ship to join the naval fleet,” he added.
The Navy is expected to benefit from the induction of at least eight new ships and one submarine this year, an official said. INS Aditya, a tanker and the first in the series was commissioned recently and INS Brahmputra would be commissioned on April 14. “Subsequently inductions will begin. INS Sindhushastra (submarine) from Russia will join the naval fleet later this year along with two fast attack crafts being built at Garden Reach in Calcutta,” he added.
The Navy has been suffering in the past as no orders were placed for new inductions between 1985-1993 mainly because of funds crunch, sources said. But now with an increase in allocation, the Navy is utilising funds for the state of the art equipment. “Recently we saw a French stealth frigate during joint exercises in the Arabian Sea. The superiority and sea control that a stealth frigate will give the Navy will be tremendous,” sources said.
This will be the first stealth frigate that the Indian Navy will have and there are plans afoot to name them after the Nilgiri class, the official added.
