Indian Navy set to induct new anti-submarine ships as Pak strengthens underwater fleet

New Delhi: Amidst a rise in submarine activities in the Indian Ocean, the Indian Navy is set to induct the first of the 16 new anti-submarine warfare ships later this month.

Named INS Arnala, after an 18th-century Maharashtra fort that served as the sentinel for the Konkan coast, the warship is equipped to conduct subsurface surveillance, search and rescue missions, and low-intensity maritime operations.

The induction - scheduled on June 18 in the presence of Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan - comes more than a decade after the Defence Ministry in December 2013 gave its approval to construct 16 such warships at a cost of over Rs 13,000 crore.

But the contract with the two winning bidders – Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers and Cochin Shipyard Ltd – were signed six years later in 2019 and construction began after a year.

This was the first case of constructing a warship through a PPP model with GRSE collaborating with L&T Kattupalli, a private shipyard, officials said.

Though smaller in size as compared to anti-submarine warfare corvettes of the Kamorta class, the 77.6-metre-long and 10.5-metre-wide INS Arnala packs a punch.

She and her follow-on warships are capable of full-scale sub-surface surveillance of coastal waters as well as search and attack. They can also carry out coordinated anti-submarine operations with aircraft.

These ships have Combat Management Systems on board and will be armed with lightweight torpedoes as well as anti-submarine warfare rockets. They will have a contingent of 57 personnel, including seven officers.

With three water jets (fitted to marine diesel engines), the INS Arnala is extremely agile and manoeuvrable. A big advantage is that she only requires a draft of 2.7-metres, allowing her to access the coasts easily in search of sub-surface threats.

The commissioning of the new ASW craft is taking place at a time when the Pakistan Navy is strengthening its underwater fleet with eight new Chinese Hangor class submarines. The second boat in the class, PNS Shushuk. was launched in water at a ceremony in Wuhan in March.