NEW DELHI: The delivery of the indigenously manufactured stealth Frigate Udaygiri to the Indian Navy on Tuesday marked a rare landmark in the history of the Force.
Yard 12652 (Udaygiri), the second ship of Project 17A stealth frigate, being built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL), became the 100th ship to be designed and delivered by the Indian Navy's in-house Warship Design Bureau.
The Indian Navy in its statement said, "The Project is a follow-on of the Shivalik class (Project 17) frigates active in service. Udaygiri is the second among the seven P17A frigates under construction at MDSL, Mumbai and GRSE, Kolkata. It is going to bolster the Indian Navy's blue water capabilities in future."
Indian Navy in its statement added, "These multi-mission frigates are capable of operating in a 'Blue Water' environment dealing with both conventional and non-conventional threats in the area of India's maritime interests."
Udaygiri is a modern Avatar of its predecessor, erstwhile INS Udaygiri, a Steam Ship decommissioned on 24 August 2007 after rendering 31 years of glorious service to the nation.
P-17A ships have enhanced stealth features and are fitted with 'State of the Art' weapons and sensors, a significant upgrade from the P17 class. The ships represent a quantum leap in the Indian Navy's in-house design capabilities at the Warship Design Bureau.
The newly designed ships are also being built employing the philosophy of 'Integrated Construction', which involves extensive pre-outfitting at the Block stages to reduce the overall build periods.
Udaygiri has been delivered to the Indian Navy, in a record time of 37 months from the date of launching. These ships are fitted with an advanced weapon and sensor suite with enhanced 'sleek and stealthy' features compared to the P17 class.
The ships are configured with Combined Diesel or Gas (CODOG) main propulsion plants, comprising a Diesel Engine and Gas turbine, driving a Controllable Pitch Propeller (CPP) on each shaft and a state-of-the-art Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS).
The weapon suite comprises a supersonic Surface-to-Surface missile system, a Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile system, 76 mm Gun, and a combination of 30 mm and 12.7 mm rapid-fire close-in Weapon Systems.
As per the Navy, this ship being constructed is another example of atma nirbharta (self-reliance) in shipbuilding and employment generation. The delivery of Udaygiri showcases the nation's ship design, ship construction and engineering prowess enabled by a strong industrial ecosystem supported by over 200 MSMEs.
The warship is fitted with major weapons and sensors sourced from indigenous OEMs. As per the Navy, the indigenous ship construction has the Plough Back effect.
"The shipbuilding requirements of the Project have led to direct employment generation for about 4,000 personnel and more than 10,000 personnel through indirect/ ancillary sources. The positive spin-offs of the shipbuilding project include self-reliance, economic development, employment generation, growth of MSMEs and ancillary ecosystem in the country," the Force said.
The remaining five ships of the P 17A Class are at various stages of construction at MDSL, Mumbai and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata and would be delivered progressively by end of 2026.
The Navy's Warship Design Bureau, known earlier as the Department of naval Design, is the Indian Navy's in-house Design Organisation which has achieved self-sufficiency and self-reliance in warship design and construction capability towards manufacturing state-of-the-art warships: Aircraft Carrier, other warships and submarines.