import or make

The last UPA and NDA govts made it clear that the last foreign manufactured naval vessel that Indian navy will buy is the INS Vikramadithya. And the Navy made it mandatory that it will build all its future vessels in Indian shipyards. Under this guidance India started to design and manufacture heavy warships in own shipyards. Till date we have manufactured  18 vessels of six different types from year 2000 with total tonnage of 90,000 tonnes. And currently the planners, designers and builders are working on more than 40 capital warships of different types with a projected combined tonnage of more than 2,00,000 tonnes. The vision is to have a navy with 200 ships including 150 capital warships.

With such a capacity to design, develop and manufacture capital warships in India, the logic on the news in media that India may buy 3-4 stealth frigates (we already operate six such 4100 tonnes multi mission capable ships purchased from Russia, with the last one inducted in 2013 being touted as the last of the naval vessels built from abroad) from Russia perplexes one with the short sightedness being showcased by the people in decision making. Instead we should have expedited the plan to build four follow on stealth frigates proposed after the project 17 (project 17 the shivalik class frigates, 6200 tonne ships with multi mission capability currently in service). These proposed project 17A (7000 tonne stealth multi mission capable vessels. much larger, capable and lethal than the Russian ships) will be modular built, meaning the lead time to deliver these vessels will be very less compared to their predecessors, also meaning a leapfrog for Indian shipyards in terms of manufacturing capability.

Even if those Russian vessels will be built in India, it is still not worthy to go for foreign design when our designers are similarly capable. Also these vessels will not be built from scratch. Russia jumped with this offer after Ukraine denied to deliver the engines and transmission equipment for the ships that Russia is already building for its navy. So we will be getting half built warships from Russia which some Indian private shipyard will be completing.

I cannot say what thinking is behind this. India is not going to wage war in near to extended future for buying new warships in haste. We have just signed into Shanghai cooperation organization led by China and shook hands with China to legitimize the name sake BRICS forum into a development Bank. Pakistan is no match to our existing capabilities. Instead the money (more than one billion per ship) can be better invested to design and build more ships within India. Hope navy gets what it wants for keeping us safe.

Later : My words echoed by one of the greatest defence journalists of India, Ajay Shukla. India is going to shoot itself in leg with this decision to buy Russian frigates for the Navy.

http://ajaishukla.blogspot.in/2015/07/the-ghost-of-gorshkov.html?m=1