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Nilgiri

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Russia Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Makarov Project 11356
Russian Navy Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Makarov Project 11356. Russian MoD picture.


India’s Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) cut a steel plate for its first locally built Project 11356 frigate on September 21. The official ceremony of steel cutting was being live-streamed on the same day by the Ishwari Digital media platform.



During the ceremony, the Vice Chief of the Indian Navy’s (IN’s) Staff Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar cut the first plate of steel for the premier Indian-built Project 11356 frigate.


In his turn, a representative of GSL said the construction of the Project 11356 frigates would be the largest shipbuilding program to be conducted by the enterprise. “Thanks to the commencement of the project, the shipyard has entered the league of the Indian enterprises that are capable of building large surface combatants. Therefore, India’s capabilities to construct this type of defense hardware will be dramatically reinforced,” he said. “We are planning to fulfill the program in time. The enterprise rapidly adopted to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to minimize its impact on manufacturing processes,” he added.


According to the representative of GSL, the new ships will incorporate “a large number” of indigenous subsystems.


India-Goa-Shipyard-cuts-steel-for-its-first-locally-built-Project-11356-frigate-.jpg

Goa Shipyard Limited picture showing the keel laying ceremony for the first firgate

India has designated the new ship ‘Advanced Missile Frigate’ (AMF). “GSL commences production of Advanced Missile Frigates, with ‘First Steel Cutting’ today at the hands of Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar — another landmark step in Defence Shipbuilding and a major boost to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ [projects],” said GSL in a tweet on September 21.


Russia and India previously contracted the delivery of four Project 11356 frigates to the Asian country. Under the deal, the Yantar Shipyard (a subsidiary of Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation) and GSL are set to build two ships each.


The Project 11356 frigate is designed to strike surface/underwater combatants and aerial targets in both blue and green waters. The ships operate both in battle groups and as standalone naval platforms. The frigate is armed with an A-190 10 mm naval gun, strike missiles (including the Kalibr and Shtil missile weapons), and torpedoes. The ship can store a Kamov Ka-27 naval rotorcraft. The Project 11356 frigate is 124.8 m long and has a displacement of 3,620 t, a full speed of 30 kt, and a cruise range of 4,850 nm.


The naval platform has been designed with the use of stealth technologies; the acoustic signature of the ship has also been reduced, while the system’s protection against high-precision weapons has been reinforced. The frigate’s powerplant integrates four gas-turbine engines. The ship can employ only one gas-turbine engine to sail in order to increase the service life and cost-effectiveness ratio of the main powerplant.


Another representative of GSL told TASS at the Army 2019 international military-technical forum that the Indian Project 11356 frigate would receive a number of locally built subsystems, including a 76 mm naval gun, the BRAHMOS cruise missiles, two 30 mm anti-aircraft guns, two torpedo launchers, and a rocket launcher. The source added that the sensor suite of the new ship would also comprise several Indian items, including a sonar, an information combat-management system, and an electronic warfare system.

The second frigate of the 2 planned in this class has now had keel laying done:


KEEL LAYING FOR SECOND FRIGATE OF P11356 PROJECT AT GOA SHIPYARD LIMITED​

Posted On: 18 JUN 2021 8:40PM by PIB Delhi

Keel of the second frigate of additional follow-on ship of Project 1135.6 for the Indian Navy was ceremoniously laid on 18 Jun 2021 by Vice Adm G Ashok Kumar, Vice Chief of Naval Staff.

The ships under construction at Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) are part of indigenous shipbuilding program being executed under Inter Governmental Agreement with Russian Side for construction of two advanced frigates for the Indian Navy. The contract was signed on 25 January 2019 between Ministry of Defence and Goa Shipyard Limited. Keel Laying is a major milestone activity in the construction of any ship symbolising formal commencement of the construction process. Keel for the first ship was laid on 29 Jan 2021. The first ship would be delivered in 2026 and second ship subsequently after 06 months.

The ceremony was held virtually in the presence of Vice Admiral Kiran Deshmukh, Controller Warship Production & Acquisition (CWP&A), Cmde Sanjay Shrivastava, Cmde (SP), Cmde B B Nagpal (Retd), Chairman and Managing Director, GSL, Directors, and other senior officials of the Indian Navy and GSL.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Guest Vice Adm G Ashok Kumar appreciated the efforts put in by the Shipyard in achieving this milestone despite COVID constraints. He highlighted that it was for the first time that these vessels, with such technological complexity, were being constructed indigenously at GSL and marked an important milestone in our journey towards Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Make in India initiative. He further added that a large number of major equipment are being substituted with indigenous equivalents, in addition to use of significant indigenous build material. The entire hulls of the ships are also being built with indigenous steel. He also highlighted major achievements of the Shipyard and commended the professionalism displayed by employees of GSL.

During his address, CMD-GSL highlighted various challenges faced by the Shipyard in executing this complex shipbuilding project. Despite challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic, the Shipyard continued the production activities with active support of employees and innovative solutions. He thanked the Indian Navy for their unstinted support and reiterated GSL’s commitment to cater for the requirement of Maritime Defence Forces through indigenous shipbuilding.

===================================

It is good to see GSL capacity been increased via this project, it will be a shipyard going forward that can do frigates too.

@Anmdt @AlphaMike @crixus @Zapper @Raptor @FalconSlayersDFI et al.
 

Madokafc

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Agree with @Nilgiri here. It is mostly about capacity building, also about time. Some of those ships were sitting in Russian yards without the Ukrainian engines after Russia's Crimean adventures. Russian's were offering them at a lower price to us & Ukraine has no problem selling engines if the ships go to India. This is a cheap way of getting some good ships fast and also upgrading GSL's shipbuilding capacity. We already use the Talwar class, so logistically its not a problem.

GSL doesn't have any experience in building larger ships like frigates. They have so far made patrol boats of 1000-2000 tons. We need more of shipyard cabpable of making these ships. Just MDL, GRSE or CSL wont be enough. Shivalik is the successor of Talwar yes. Successor not necessarily in terms of tech rather domestic design and building capability. Besides the Shivalik's production line closed long ago. Restarting that is an expensive proposition especially when Shivalik's successor is ready.

Ironic you asked the question to @Nilgiri, Shivalik's successor is called the Nilgiri class frigate. 🤣 🤣
A total of 7 ships will be built at MDL and GRSE using modular construction. This is very important and it speeds up ship production. 6 of them are already under construction. The 1st one was launched in 2019. All will be delivered by 2025.

I love the names of the ships in the P-17A class: Nilgiri, Himgiri, Udaygiri, Dunagiri, Taragiri, Vindhyagiri, Mahendragiri
All named after mountains, Giri means mountain is Sanskrit.

Yeah we got several places in Indonesia which use Giri word attached into it
 

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INS Tabar (F44), a Talwar-class frigate of Indian Navy departs the Port of Naples after conclusion of exercises along with Antonio Marceglia (F597), a FREMM/Carlo Bergamini-class frigate of the Italian Navy. Also, note that the Russian TK-25E-5 electronic support measures system on the Tabar has been replaced with the Indian Varuna ESM package.

E5rrnmtXMAADM9G.jpg


Other recent updates include the addition of an Atlas Elektronik ACTAS towed array sonar on the Tabar:

E0wjadPVcAAE6hJ.jpg
 

Gary

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INS Tabar (F44), a Talwar-class frigate of Indian Navy departs the Port of Naples after conclusion of exercises along with Antonio Marceglia (F597), a FREMM/Carlo Bergamini-class frigate of the Italian Navy. Also, note that the Russian TK-25E-5 electronic support measures system on the Tabar has been replaced with the Indian Varuna ESM package.

View attachment 25190

Other recent updates include the addition of an Atlas Elektronik ACTAS towed array sonar on the Tabar:

View attachment 25191
what's with Indian navy choice of arm launchers instead of VLS??
 

Gessler

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what's with Indian navy choice of arm launchers instead of VLS??

Far as I know, at the time these ships were contracted (Batch-1 Talwar 1997, P-17 Shivalik 1999, Batch-2 Talwar 2006) it was the only system available. It was only in the 2010s that the VLS version of 9M317 SAM emerged on the Admiral Grigorovich class (improved Talwar/Krivak). Batch-3 & 4 which were contracted in 2018 will be using the VLS version....while the indigenous ship designs have moved toward the Barak-8 system jointly developed with Israel.

While its not official, I'm pretty confident in stating that at some point in future, both the Batch-1/2 Talwars and Shivaliks will be upgraded with 9M317ME VLS version.
 

Gary

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Far as I know, at the time these ships were contracted (Batch-1 Talwar 1997, P-17 Shivalik 1999, Batch-2 Talwar 2006) it was the only system available. It was only in the 2010s that the VLS version of 9M317 SAM emerged on the Admiral Grigorovich class (improved Talwar/Krivak). Batch-3 & 4 which were contracted in 2018 will be using the VLS version....while the indigenous ship designs have moved toward the Barak-8 system jointly developed with Israel.

While its not official, I'm pretty confident in stating that at some point in future, both the Batch-1/2 Talwars and Shivaliks will be upgraded with 9M317ME VLS version.
no plan to overhaul with VLS ??

edit: in the near term
 

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The first P-17A (INS Nilgiri) hull was laid down at MDL Mumbai in Dec 2017 & launched in Sep 2019, and now the radar mast has been installed, so seems like the superstructure construction is mostly complete:

MDL-Kasara-Basin.jpg


Thanks to Dharani for finding! Beside the P17A FFG you can also see the mast of one of the P15B DDGs also being built at the yard.

Commissioning is currently scheduled for August next year. The nearly 7,000-ton frigate will look like this once completed:

p-17a.jpeg


Main VLS armament will include 8 x BrahMos anti-ship missiles (~Mach 2.8, range could be up to 450-500km now that extended range versions were tested after India became MTCR member) and 32 x Barak-8/8ER SAMs (~90km to ~150km), total 40 cells*. But as one can see on the CGI above, just like most other modern Indian designs, there's lots of additional space available for future upgrades.

* the 8 Brahmos cells are of a different type & much larger, considering the huge size & weight of the missile.

7 ships of this class are being built, 4 at MDL Mumbai (west coast) and 3 at GRSE Kolkata (east coast).
 

SavageKing456

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The first P-17A (INS Nilgiri) hull was laid down at MDL Mumbai in Dec 2017 & launched in Sep 2019, and now the radar mast has been installed, so seems like the superstructure construction is mostly complete:

View attachment 33707

Thanks to Dharani for finding! Beside the P17A FFG you can also see the mast of one of the P15B DDGs also being built at the yard.

Commissioning is currently scheduled for August next year. The nearly 7,000-ton frigate will look like this once completed:

View attachment 33708

Main VLS armament will include 8 x BrahMos anti-ship missiles (~Mach 2.8, range could be up to 450-500km now that extended range versions were tested after India became MTCR member) and 32 x Barak-8/8ER SAMs (~90km to ~150km), total 40 cells*. But as one can see on the CGI above, just like most other modern Indian designs, there's lots of additional space available for future upgrades.

* the 8 Brahmos cells are of a different type & much larger, considering the huge size & weight of the missile.

7 ships of this class are being built, 4 at MDL Mumbai (west coast) and 3 at GRSE Kolkata (east coast).
Great progress
 

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The steel cutting of the first frigate for India took place at GSL in September 2020. Keel laying for the second ship took place in June this year. The two frigate built in Russia (Yantar Shipyard) are to be handed over to the Indian fleet in 2022 and 2023. These two ships are in fact unfinished frigates originally intended for the Russian Navy – Admiral Butakov (serial number 01360) and Admiral Istomin (serial number 01361). The ships will now be known as Tushil and Tamala.


The Government of India signed a contract with GSL on January 25, 2019 for the construction of the next two frigates of Project 11356. The ships, which are being built with Russian assistance and with partial transfer of technology from Russia, are planned to be transferred to the Indian Navy, in June 2026 and December 2026, respectively.


About Project 1135.6 frigates​

In « a significant development in the indigenous shipbuilding », the Indian Ministry of Defence has issued four shipbuilding Requests for Proposal (RFP) amounting to US$2,175 billion for the acquisition of various vessels for the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard.
INS Teg (F44) Talwar-Class guided missile frigate (credit: Indian Navy)

The Indian Navy already operates six Talwar-class frigates. Also as the Project 1135.6, it is a class of guided-missile frigates designed and built by Russia. A modification of the Krivak III-class frigates, the Project 1135.6 Talwar-class is fitted with a number of « Make in India » sub-systems.


The two follow-on Project 1135.6 frigates are to integrate the BrahMos cruise missile system in place of the 3M-54E Klub-N anti-ship missile and “advanced sensors”.


The Project 1135.6 warships are capable of reaching top speeds of 30 knots, have an endurance of around 30 days. They have a length of 124.8 meters and a displacement of about 4,000 tons. They are fitted with a flight deck to carry a helicopter for anti-submarine warfare missions.


The new frigates will deeply bolster Indian Navy capabilities in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) as the service is dealing with a shortage of 10 frigates out of the 24 that it needs.
 

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More pics of the future INS Tushil, the 7th Talwar-class FFG intended for Indian Navy, recently launched:

FDuIBj1VIAUBM9d.jpg


FDuIDU9akAA-ZYz.jpg


FDuIDSgVQAMMsqG.jpg
 

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