Kolkata, July 14: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to launch an indigenously built second P17 A class Frigate (Yard 3023) at the Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineering here on Friday, exactly 20 months after the first such warship was commissioned from Kolkata to enhance India’s maritime security across the country’s water bodies, official sources here said on Thursday.
” We will launch the 2nd P17 A class Frigate (Yard 3023) in the presence of Defence MinIndia Rajnath Singh on July 15, 2022,” Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, a premier Warship building Company in India, under the administrative control of Ministry of Defence said on its Twitter handle.
The Defence PSU and India’s leading shipbuilder (GRSE) at Kidderpore here has accomplished a key milestone in the prestigious Project 17A in December 2020 with the launch of the first of three Stealth Frigates, ‘Himgiri’.
The P17A ships are guided-missile frigates, each of which is 149 metres long with a displacement of approximately 6,670 tonnes and a speed of 28 knots, the official said.
Under the Project 17A program, a total of seven ships, four at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) and three ships at GRSE are being built with enhanced stealth features, advanced indigenous weapon and sensor fit along with several other improvements.
The launch of ‘Himgiri’ has showcased GRSE’s commitment toward the building of three state-of-the-art warships of P17A for the Indian Navy.
Over the years, GRSE has emerged as a leading shipyard having built over 100 ships. The yard has scaled up its infrastructure and skill sets to meet new challenges in the building of P17A ships. P17A ships are the first gas turbine propulsion and largest combat platforms ever built at GRSE.
