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For over a decade, the Indian Navy has wrestled with the problem of making its warships stealthier. The solution is embedded in the sleek hull of the INS Shivalik, its newest warship commissioned in Mumbai, the culmination of a decade of design and construction efforts involving thousands of technicians and designers and a final project price tag of Rs.8,000 crore for three vessels.
Modern warships are like floating orchestras. The cacophony of their propellers can be picked up by lurking submarines, their silhouettes, as tall as a five-storeyed building, can be easily detected by radars. This makes them vulnerable to anti-ship missiles and torpedoes. The indigenously built Shivalik is the first to be specifically designed from the drawing board with stealth features that puts India in an exclusive league comprising the US, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany.
Its designers say considerable effort was made in three key areas-the superstructure, heat emissions from its smokestack and noise from its propellers. The ship's sides have been angled at 10 degrees to bounce off radar waves and use radar-absorbent paint. Radar detection of the hull has thus been reduced by up to 90 per cent, allowing the vessel to tip-toe through the high seas. The engines are placed on shock-proof cradles. The engine exhausts have been shrouded and the boat deck and torpedo tubes are concealed behind a curtain.
This stealthy combination means that on a radar, the 5,900-tonne Shivalik would appear to be a warship less than half that size. The analogy is simple: what you cannot detect, you cannot hit. "Shivalik has reduced detection and lock-on ranges for hostile anti-ship missiles and torpedoes," says Rear Admiral K.N. Vaidyanathan, Director General, Naval Design. A quiet predator of the high seas.
Stealthy Punch : DEFENCE - India Today
Old article but insightful on Shivalik class frigates.
Modern warships are like floating orchestras. The cacophony of their propellers can be picked up by lurking submarines, their silhouettes, as tall as a five-storeyed building, can be easily detected by radars. This makes them vulnerable to anti-ship missiles and torpedoes. The indigenously built Shivalik is the first to be specifically designed from the drawing board with stealth features that puts India in an exclusive league comprising the US, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany.
Its designers say considerable effort was made in three key areas-the superstructure, heat emissions from its smokestack and noise from its propellers. The ship's sides have been angled at 10 degrees to bounce off radar waves and use radar-absorbent paint. Radar detection of the hull has thus been reduced by up to 90 per cent, allowing the vessel to tip-toe through the high seas. The engines are placed on shock-proof cradles. The engine exhausts have been shrouded and the boat deck and torpedo tubes are concealed behind a curtain.
This stealthy combination means that on a radar, the 5,900-tonne Shivalik would appear to be a warship less than half that size. The analogy is simple: what you cannot detect, you cannot hit. "Shivalik has reduced detection and lock-on ranges for hostile anti-ship missiles and torpedoes," says Rear Admiral K.N. Vaidyanathan, Director General, Naval Design. A quiet predator of the high seas.
Stealthy Punch : DEFENCE - India Today
Old article but insightful on Shivalik class frigates.
