Indian Navy Expands

[Max The Boss]

The Indian Navy is the naval branch of the armed forces of India. It currently has approximately 55,000 personnel on active duty, including 5,000 members of the naval aviation branch and 2,000 marine commandos, making it the world's fifth largest navy. The Indian Navy currently operates more than 155 vessels, including the INS Viraat, the only full-deck aircraft carrier operated by a country in Asia or the Western Pacific, along with operational jet fighters.

Though the primary objective of the navy is to secure national maritime borders, India also uses its navy to enhance its international relations through joint exercises, friendly port visits and humanitarian missions, including disaster relief. In recent years, the Indian Navy has undergone extensive modernization and expansion with an intention to increase its capabilities as a recognized blue-water navy. By 2020, the Indian Navy is expected to operate four aircraft carriers and eight nuclear submarines.

Marine Commando Force (MCF) - The Marine Commando Force (MCF), also known as MARCOS, is a special forces unit that was raised by the Indian Navy in 1987 for direct action, special reconnaissance, amphibious warfare.

Ongoing Expansion - In 2004, India bought the Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov for the equivalent of US$1.5 billion. It will cost an additional US$1.5 billion to refit, and is expected to join the Indian Navy in 2012 as INS Vikramaditya. A further US$700 million will be spent to purchase 12 single-seat MiG-29K and four dual-seat MiG-29KUB fighters, six Kamov-31 attack and reconnaissance anti-submarine helicopters; also included are training facilities for pilots and technical staff, delivery of simulators and spare parts, and establishment and maintenance of Indian Navy facilities. Upgrades include removing missiles from the carrier foredeck to make way for a 14.3-degree ski-jump. The Mig-29's will be delivered to the Indian Navy in 2008.
In April 2005, India began construction of a 40,000 tonne Vikrant class aircraft carrier at a cost of 4,000 crore and scheduled to operate 30 aircraft, including Naval LCA, MiG-29K, and Sea Harrier combat aircraft, as well as HAL Dhruv, Ka-31, and Sea King Mk.42 helicopters. Four turbine engines will power the ship. The carrier is being constructed by state-run Cochin Shipyard Limited, and will be commissioned by 2012-13. The Indian Minister of State for Defense, Pallam Raju, went on record in September 2006 stating that the aircraft carrier is likely to be commissioned by 2011. There are plans to build more aircraft carriers domestically. The Indian Navy is currently undergoing rapid expansion and modernization. Yantar, a plant in Kaliningrad, Russia, was awarded a US$1.56 billion contract to build three additional 1135.6 frigates. The increased price is due to more sophisticated armaments such as BrahMos cruise missiles. The Navy has government approval for an additional eight warships.
The Indian Navy is also planning to induct 8 P-8I maritime patrol aircraft for Rs. 8,500 crore. The first aircraft will be delivered 4 years after the signing of the contract.
Future Prospects - India is expected to spend about US$40 billion on military modernization from 2008 to 2013. A major chunk of those purchases were made for the Indian Navy. Work on the third aircraft carrier is to start in 2010 and will be inducted into the Navy by 2017. India is currently focusing on expanding its submarine fleet. Also newer technology like the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) is being developed for the Indian Navy to protect the littoral domain.
After ordering six Scorpene submarines as part of Project 75, Indian Navy is now on the look out for six next-generation submarines in a project worth over Rs 30,000 crore. These six diesel-electric submarines built in India under Project-75I, will be equipped with air-independent propulsion boosting their operational capabilities and will have high degree of stealth, land-attack capability and ability to incorporate futuristic technologies. RFI has been issued to Rosoboronexport; French (Armaris), HDW and other firms, two rounds of discussions have already taken place. The RFP or global tender will be issued in late-2008 or early-2009.
The RFP (request for proposal) for six MRMR aircraft with anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities was issued on July 11, 2008 to Italian Alenia Aeronautica's ATR-72-500MP aircraft, Brazilian Embraer P-99 , French Dassault's Falcon 900DX and Russian Antonov-72P. The contract is expected to be signed by June 2009 and deliveries to begin by 2012. The contract is estimated to cost Rs. 1,600 crore. The Navy is also planning to induct more UAVs. The India will convert the Chetak a helicopter into unmanned UAV’s that can operate from ships is progressing steadily. All these will be linked with space-based reconnaissance systems. On January 13, 2009, India has issued a request for proposals (RFPs) for six Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft. The new aircraft, which will replace the aging fleet of 10 Islander aircraft in service, are to be equipped with an Airborne Early Warning system. The Indian Coast Guard has an additional requirement for six MRMRs without an Airborne Early Warning system. The MRMR is required to have a range of 500 nautical miles and an endurance of 6 hours. Aircraft competing for the order include a variant of Boeing's P-8I, and possibly the turboprop ATR-72MP, EADS C-295, Dassault's Falcon 900MPA and Embraer P-99A platforms. For the Coast Guard RFP, contenders could be the ATR-42MP, C-295 or CN-235MP.
Indian Navy has issued a tender for procurement of 16 advanced, multi-role naval helicopters to AgustaWestland, EADS and Sikorsky. The order is likely to be expanded to 60 helicopters. The helicopters will be equipped with anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare equipment including cruise missiles and torpedoes, and also be capable of being refueled in flight. The type will operate from both naval vessels and land bases.
Global bids have been floated to acquire eight mine countermeasure vessels (MCMVs), to replace the twelve Pondicherry class ocean minesweepers in service. France's DCN International, Fincanteri of Italy, Izhar of Spain, Kangnam of South Korea and Northrop Grumman of the U.S have been invited to participate in the bidding process. Six of the craft will be produced at Goa shipyard under transfer of technology.
With the recent and ongoing upgrades and inductions, independent analysts expect that the Indian Navy may soon become a blue-water navy. India's navy is already among the most powerful in the region, and with further upgrades in the future, aims to control the Indian Ocean Region, from the coast of East Africa to Australia. India is also the only Asian navy to regularly operate an aircraft carrier. The aim is to have a total of four Aircraft carrier’s resulting in one Aircraft carrier fully operational now. Making Indian Navy an operating Blue-water navy in Future.
Indian Navy operated ships & submarines in 2009
1 - Aircraft carrier (In service)
8 – Destroyers (In service)
13 – Frigates (In service)
24 – Corvettes (In service)
16 – Submarines (In service)
22 - Amphibious Warfare Ships (In service)
28 - Patrol Ships (In service)
13 – Minesweepers (In service)
10 - Replenishment Tankers (In service)
8 - Survey ships (In service)
1 - Research Vessel (In service)
2 - Training Vessels (In service)
2 - Sail training Vessels (In service)
2 - Torpedo recovery vessels (In service)
2 - Water carrier (In service)
1 - Hospital ship (In service)
18 - Harbor Tugs (In service)
2 - Ocean Tug (In service)
1 - Diving Support Ship (In service)
Being build –
2 - Aircraft carriers (INS Vikrant, INS Vikramaditya)
1 – Destroyer (INS Kolkata)
2 – Frigates (INS Satpura, INS Sahyadri)
4 – Corvettes (ASW corvettes)
3 - Nuclear Submarines – (Shipbuilding Centre - Visakhapatnam)
6 – Submarines – (France - Mazagon Dock)
2 - Mine countermeasure vessels – (MCMV)
4 - Patrol crafts (INS Saryu - Goa Shipyard Limited)
1 - Replenishment tanker (Italy - Fincantieri)
1 - Sail Training ship – (GRSE)
Planned or on order –
1 - Aircraft carrier – (Construction will begin in 2010 at Cochin Shipyard)
1 - Aircraft carrier – (Construction will begin in 2012 at Goa Shipyard)
4 – Destroyers – (France -Mazagon Dock - Order expected)
6 - Nuclear Submarines – (Shipbuilding Centre – Vishakapatnam – On order)
14 - Landing ship tanks – (Order expected)
3 - Landing platform dock - (Order expected)
2 - Nuclear Submarines – (On order - Akula – Russia)
6 - Survey vessels (On order)
India has a number of foreign-produced cruise missile systems in its arsenal, which includes the Klub (SS-N-27). It also has some indigenous cruise missile systems under development, including the Sagarika and Lakshya variants. The Navy has got the Lakshya PTA. The Sagarika (Oceanic) began development in 1994 as a submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM) which will have a range of at least 300 km (a few claim 1000 km). Another successful program has been the development of the Yakhont Anti Ship Missile system into the BrahMos, by NPO and India's DRDO. The BrahMos has been tailored to Indian needs and uses a large proportion of Indian designed components and technology, for its fire control systems, Transporter erector launches, to its onboard navel-attack system.
Discussants related to Indian Navy Modernization and Expansion

 

[satishkumarcsc]

Actually it is 3 Kolkatta class destroyers being built, You forgot the Project 17A Shivalik class frigates being built. And further acquisition of 4 Talwar class rigates being built in Russia.

 

[white_pawn]

Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV)

India is a nation that fights for entering the select group of countries that build nuclear powered submarines. Its program ATV, or Advanced Technology Vessel, was initiated in 1974. But after three decades it still had not presented results that could modify the current picture of the navies with nuclear propulsion.

India has been working actively since 1985 to develop an indigenously constructed nuclear-powered submarine, one that was possibly based on elements of the Soviet Charlie II-class design, detailed drawings of which are said to have been obtained from the Soviet Union in 1989. This project illustrates India's industrial capabilities and weaknesses. The secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project to provide nuclear propulsion for Indian submarines has been one of the more ill-managed projects of India.

Although India has the capability of building the hull and developing or acquiring the necessary sensors, its industry had been stymied by several system integration and fabrication problems in trying to downsize a 190 MW pressurized water reactor (PWR) to fit into the space available within the submarine's hull. The Proto-type Testing Centre (PTC) at the Indira Gandhi Centre For Atomic Research. Kalpakkam, will be used to test the submarine's turbines and propellers. A similar facility is operational at Vishakapatnam to test the main turbines and gear box.

The Indian nuclear powered attack submarine design is said to have a 4,000-ton displacement and a single-shaft nuclear power plant of Indian origin. By some accounts it would be 9,400 tons displacement when submerged and 124 meters long. With the participation of involved Russian scientists and technician in the diverse phases of the program, came the possibility of that the first Indian submarine with nuclear propulsion can be operational in 2009, having been launched in 2006-2007.

In 1998, L&T began fabricating the hull of ATV but the struggle with the reactor continued. After BARC designs failed, India bought reactor designs from Russia. By 2004 the reactor had been built, tested on land at the IGCAR and had gone critical. Its modest size, around 6,000 tons (the Ohio class SSBN in the movie Crimson Tide weighs over 14,000 tonne), led experts to call it a “baby boomer”. While the present project ends at three units, defence officials have not ruled out building larger submarines on the basis of national strategic imperatives. These have changed since the conception of the project.

By 2004 it was reported that the first ATV would be launched by 2007. At that time it was reported that it would be an SSGN and displacing some 6,500 tons, with a design derivative of Russia's Project 885 Severodvinsk-class (Yasen) SSN. The ATV multirole platform would be employed for carrying out long-distance interdiction and surveillance of both submerged targets as well as principal surface combatants. It would also facilitate Special Forces operations by covertly landing such forces ashore. The ATV pressure hull will be fabricated with the HY-80 steel obtained from Russia.

This would have the possibility of multiple performance: it could use missiles of cruise of average reach (1,000 km), ballistic missiles of short reach (300 km), torpedoes and mines, besides participating of operations special. If it will have success in this taken over on a contract basis, will be valid to assume that the Indian Fleet will count on four to six of these submarines until the year of 2020.

The ATV is said to be a modified Akula-I class submarine. The Russian Akula-2 and Yasen are also modified Akula-1. By this line of reasoning the ATV would be in league of Yasen, so the ATV would be 6500 tons light, 8500 tons armed and surfaced and 10000 tons submerged. It would be the biggest and heaviest combat naval vessel built in India to date.

The 100-member crew, which will man the submarine, is being trained at an indigenously-developed simulator in the School for Advanced Underwater Warfare (SAUW) at the naval base in Vizag. Hands-on training will be done on the INS Chakra, a 12,000-tonne Akula-II class nuclear-powered attack submarine being taken on a 10-year lease from Russia next year. SBC in Vizag is to become the assembly line for three ATVs, costing a little over Rs 3,000 crore each or the cost of a 37,000 tonne indigenous aircraft carrier built at the Cochin Shipyard. Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has begun building the hull of the second ATV at its facility in Hazira, to be inducted into the navy by 2012.

As of 2007 the first of the five long-delayed ATVs was scheduled to be fully-ready by 2010 or so. In August 2008 it was reported that on January 26, 2009, the sluice gates of an enclosed dry-dock in Visakhapatnam were to be opened and the world was to take its first look at India's first nuclear-powered submarine, the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), as it entered the waters.

In February 2009 defence minister A K Antony confirmed that India's nuclear-powered submarine is in the final stages. “The Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project is in the final stage. We had some problems with the raw material in the initial phase. But now the project is in its final stage,” he said at the ongoing Aero-India show. This was a rare admission by the defence minister - not only on the existence of the secretive project to build an indigenous nuclear submarine, but also on its developmental status. The submarine, modelled on the Russian Charlie class submarine, is slated for a sea trial in 2009. Officials in the navy and atomic energy department are hopeful of meeting the deadline this time. In the long run, the government plans to buy three nuclear submarines to provide the navy with capability to stay underwater for a very long time. Though defence and nuclear scientists have been working on this project since 1985, they had initial setbacks with the material and miniaturisation of the nuclear reactor which will be fitted into the submarine's hull.

Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV)