India launches its first indigenous missile-carrying stealth frigate

YAHOO NEWS ^ | Fri Apr 18, 2003

[BOSTON BRAHMIN]

India launched its first indigenously built stealth warship as part of its ambition of increasing its maritime influence in the turbulent Indian Ocean, officials have said.

AFP Photo

The ship, christened INS Shivalik after one of India's Himalayan peaks, has been built at the state-run Mazgoan Dock Ltd. (MDL) near Bombay and is designed to evade interception as part of its stealth capabilities, they said Friday.

Warship Shivalik, part of a national naval project to build three stealth ships, will be assigned operational duties when fully armed by December 2005, defence ministry officials said.

The remaining two ships will be commissioned with the Indian navy in 2006 and in 2007.

"Shivalik will play the dual role of offensive and defensive combat and it also has the capacity to attack in-shore targets," a ministry official said.

MDL chief H.S. Kang said Shivalik's original cost when the project left the drawing board in 1994 was estimated at two billion rupees (42 million US dollars) and warned the cost would jump 10 times by the time it is deployed in two years' time.

Defence Minister George Fernandes, who attended the ship's launch, said successive governments had neglected India's maritime boundaries as none had perceived the threat of aggression from its seas.

"Since the day the country got freedom (in 1947) until the recent Kargil war, the country's maritime borders and the navy has been neglected," Fernandes said in reference to a near-war India fought in 1999 with rival Pakistan.

Fernandes promised to pay "special attention" to upgrade India's maritime preparedness, and stressed the role of navies during the recently-concluded war in Iraq.

"During the invasion of Iraq, naval forces of the United States, Britain, Spain and Italy were indulging in front-line operations and were not merely playing a supportive role for the war on land," he said.

Indian officials described INS Shivalik as a frigate-class warship and said it was likely to be fitted with the 300 kilometre (180 mile) anti-ship cruise missile BraHmos, being jointly built by India and Russia.

Naval chief Admiral Madhvendra Singh said Shivalik will carry long-range missiles capable of attacking shore targets, medium-range air defence missiles, specialised radars and anti-submarine warfare hardware.

India's 137-ship navy, which is also expecting the delivery of a Russia-made stealth destroyer this year, plans to build an aircraft carrier to double its fleet of such naval combat platforms to two.

[Illbay]

Wowza.

Too bad India has been and continues to be so closely aligned with Russia.

[Joseph_Erulkar]

"Too bad India has been and continues to be so closely aligned with Russia."

Too bad the U.S. has been and continues to be so closely aligned with Islamic Fundamentalist Pakistan and Communist China.

[gcruse]

Stealthy, eh? I wonder how they overcame that sonar thingy.

[tubebender]

Stealthy, eh? I wonder how they overcame that sonar thingy.

Easy, they don't allow curry on board so no one can smell them coming...

[gcruse]

You're right, I transposed the letters from NOSAR to SONAR. ;)

[USMMA_83]

Hang in there, you'll soon figure out who are the usual suspects on FR. You might not have met TBP yet, he's the spokesperson for all Khalistani issues here.

[Husker24]

Defence Minister George Fernandes

something seems out of place here.

[BOSTON BRAHMIN]

"Defence Minister George Fernandes something seems out of place here."

The defence minister in India is a Catholic.

[11B3]

The US is aligned with China? Since when? Pakistan is out of necessity from Afghanistan (you do remember that little conflict, right?) - plus we're trying to bring them back from the brink peacefully. That is in India's favor, BTW. We've put a lot of pressure on Pak to fly right or face the music.

India, on the other hand, while training with our military a couple of times lately, has been a rubber stamp of Russia's policies towards the US without fail. In all actuality, we'd like to become a lot closer to India as a counterweight to China. As it stands today, we'd be against India, China, and Russia in that part of the world militarily. Talk about population control.....

[TopQuark]

Too bad the U.S. has been and continues to be so closely aligned with Islamic Fundamentalist Pakistan and Communist China.

C'mon Joseph: the alighnment with Russia started long before problems with Pakistan or terrorism. The left, socialist leanings had something to do with that, did they not?

Welcome to FR, Joseph! Hag sameah. Have a happy Passover.

[El Gato]

Too bad India has been and continues to be so closely aligned with Russia

We can blame Henry the K for that. He was the author of the original "tilt" towards Pakistan. The Indians like Russian stuff, because it's cheap, but I don't think they much like the Russians.

[El Gato]

C'mon Joseph: the alighnment with Russia started long before problems with Pakistan or terrorism. The left, socialist leanings had something to do with that, did they not?

While they, the Indians and the Soviets did have some mutual interest in opposing China, the real rush to alighn themselves with the Soviet Union started when Henry Kissinger "tilted" towards Pakistan as part of the general sucking up to (he would say opening up of) Red China, which in turn was supposed to be as a counter balence to the Soviets. I thought it was dumb then, I still think it was dumb. Prior to that, the Indians bought alot of cast off, and new, British stuff. Their military, and Pakistan's too, is on the Brit model, more or less.

[El Gato]

when Henry Kissinger "tilted" towards Pakistan

For the kiddies, that was during the Nixon administration, back in the dark ages of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

[quietolong]

The same technology of shapes that works for Radar works for Sonar too.
From the book “ Skunk works “
One of the managers on the prototype F-117 was trying to take some Polaroid’s of it. And went to Ben Rich ( the head of the Skunk works at the time who took over from Kelly Johnson ) And said. My camera must be broken the pictures are all fuzzy. The it hit Mr. Rich. The camera uses Sonar to focus. And the aircraft was invisible to the Sonar on the camera.
But one big difficulty to overcome when they made a prototype ship.
It was too quiet...
When you beam a Radar signal along the top of the water. Each wave top reflects some of the energy. Which is usually considered noise. But when there was a Stealth ship in the way it put a “ hole in the noise “

[Cronos]

I guess once trade with the US picks up (last time I saw we were their number one trade partner) and when the US starts selling it's superior weapons to them (remember there are still arms embargoes in place thanks to whiny Powell) the Indians will be buying good ole made in US stuff.

Since the Russians are willing to sell them weapons and the US isn't , it seems pretty darn obvious why they would want to buy Russi stuff, eh?

[Cronos]

Wow, 137 ship fleet!

Now that's the sort of ally we need to counterbalance China!

[USMMA_83]

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/Current/Su-30/Su-30n.jpg

Some of the russian stuff is not bad at all. Also remember that the Indians only will buy russian stuff if they also get to produce it in India. For instance, they will buy 130 Su-30MKI's only if they get to produce the other 500 in India, on license ofcourse (snicker!). Will Boeing allow that to happen. Not in the near future!

[Cronos]

And our USAF is going to have wargames with the Indians later this year.
Now THAT's Good -- remember, the chicoms have Su-30s too, so we get to practise for an eventual war with them!
And the Indians get to practise to take out the Paks!
Win-Win!

[anguish]

The Swedish "stealth" ship, Visby-class :