New Delhi, May 16: Two frontline indigenous warships of the Indian Navy Surat, a Project 15B Destroyer and Udaygiri, a Project 17A Frigate will be launched concurrently at Mazgaon Docks Limited in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be the Chief Guest for both the events, Indian Navy said calling it a “landmark event in the history of indigenous warship building.” “Tomorrow, 17th May, I shall be in Mumbai to attend the landmark event in the history of indigenous warship building when two frontline Indian Navy warships, Surat, a Project 15B Destroyer and Udaygiri, a Project 17A Frigate will be launched concurrently at MDL. Look forward to it,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh wrote on Twitter.
The Project 15B class of ships are the next generation stealth guided missile destroyers of the Indian Navy being built at the Mazgaon Docks Limited, Mumbai. Surat is the fourth ship of Project 15B Destroyers which heralds a significant makeover of the P15A (Kolkata Class) Destroyers and is named after the commercial capital of the state of Gujarat and also the second largest commercial hub of western India after Mumbai, the Navy said.
The warship Surat has been built using the Block construction methodology which involved hull construction at two different geographical locations and has been joined together at MDL, Mumbai. The first ship of this class was commissioned in 2021. The second and third ships have been launched and are at different stages of outfitting or trials.
The other ship Udaygiri, named after a mountain range in the state of Andhra Pradesh, is the third ship of Project 17A Frigates. These are follow on of the P17 Frigates (Shivalik Class) with improved stealth features, advanced weapons and sensors and platform management systems, the Navy said.
Udaygiri is the reincarnation of erstwhile Udaygiri, the Leander Class ASW Frigate, which saw numerous challenging operations in its illustrious service to the country spanning over three decades from 18 Feb 1976 to 24 Aug 2007, the Navy added. “Under the P17A program, a total of seven ships, with 4 ships at MDL and 3 ships at GRSE are under construction. Various novel concepts and technologies like Integrated Construction, Mega Block Outsourcing, Project Data Management Project Lifecycle Management (PDM/PLM) etc have been adopted for the first time in indigenous Warship Design and Construction in this project,” the Navy said.
It may be recalled that the first two ships of P17A, were launched in 2019 and 2020 at MDL and GRSE respectively. The Indian Navy said that both 15B and P17A ships have been designed in-house by the Directorate of Naval Design which has been the fountainhead for all warship design activities of the nation and during the building phase at the Shipyard, around 75% of the orders for equipment and systems have been placed on indigenous firms including MSMEs.
