NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will launch two indigenous frontline warships of the Indian Navy at Mazgaon Docks Limited, Mumbai next week, marking a significant milestone in their construction, defence sources said. ‘Surat’ is the fourth and last of the stealth destroyers under ‘Project 15B’, while ‘Udaygiri’ is part of the ‘Project 17A’ frigate programme. “The ships will be launched after the hull is completed and the machinery and major systems have been fitted into it while it is at dry dock,” said an officer. “The work will continue further and the next stage will be to put the ships to rigorous sea-trials.”
“The Project 15B class of ships are the next generation stealth guided missile destroyers of the Indian Navy being built at the Mazgaon Docks Ltd, Mumbai,” said the Nay. ‘Surat’ is the fourth ship of Project 15B Destroyers which heralds a significant makeover of the P15A (Kolkata Class) destroyers and is named after Gujarat’s diamond city.
The contract for the construction of four ships under Project-15B was signed in January 2011 at a cost of about `29,643.74 crore. The final cost of the project is `35,000 crore. The four ships are christened after major cities from four corners of the country — Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal, and Surat. The remaining ships will be commissioned one per year from 2022 to 2024.
Apart from myriad indigenous equipment in the ‘float’ and ‘move’ categories, the destroyer is also installed with major indigenous weapons which include medium range surface-to-air missiles, BrahMos surface-to-surface missiles, indigenous torpedo tube launchers, anti-submarine indigenous rocket launchers and 76mm super rapid gun mount.
Surat will be among the largest destroyers made in India and has an overall length of 163 metre and displacement of over 7,400 ton. Udaygiri will be around 142 metre with a displacement of 6,200 tonne. The frigate is named after a mountain range in Andhra Pradesh.