Ships, Submarines, Frigates and Destroyers of Indian Navy

The equipments of Indian Navy include Ships and Aircraft Carriers, Submarines, Weapon Systems and Naval Satellite. Important Trivia about these is discussed below:

Aircraft Carriers

Aircraft Carrier is a warship that has a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying and recovering aircrafts. Thus, the Aircraft carriers works as naval airbase of the country. Currently, India has two Aircraft carriers viz. INS Viraat and INS Vikramaditya.

• INS Viraat is the Centaur Class aircraft carrier and should be noted has the last British built ship in Indian Navy and the oldest aircraft carrier in service in the world. It is in service since British Era.
• INS Vikramaditya is the latest aircraft carrier which was inducted in Indian Navy in June 2014. It is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier, and was originally developed as Baku and was in service of Soviet Navy as Admiral Gorshkov till 2004 when India purchased it.

We note here that INS Vikrant was India’s first aircraft carrier. It served the Indian Navy from 1945 to 1997, then served as a museum for more than a decade, and now has been scrapped. Currently, a new Vikrant Class aircraft carrier is under construction at Kochi Shipyard. The government plans to decommission INS Viraat once this new indigenously made aircraft carrier comes into service.

Submarines

The submarines operate underwater and are used to infiltrate the enemy sea and destroy enemy ships. There are two types of Submarines viz. Attack Submarines and Ballistic Missile Submarines. They can be Diesel powered or nuclear powered.

Currently, India has 15 Submarines. Out of which only two viz. INS Chakra and INS Arihant are nuclear powered while rest are diesel powered.

INS Chakra

The Akula Class INS Chakra was leased from Russia for 10 years in 2012. Currently, it is the only nuclear powered attack submarine of India.

INS Arihant

Arihant Class INS Arihant is India’s first indigenously developed nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine but it has not entered into service as of now. It is undergoing sea trials. The design of the submarine is based on Akula class and once inducted into service, INS Arihant would be India’s nuclear powered ballistic missile. It would be capable of launching nuclear-capable ballistic missile BO-5 which has a range of 700 kms. It can carry 12 such missiles. With INS Aspirant in service, India would be only country beyond P-5 to have developed such submarine on its own.

Rest of the active submarines are diesel powered and divided into two classes viz. Sindhughosh Class and Shishumar Class. There are nine Sindhughosh class submarines in service currently, but they have become very old. The government is planning to replace Sindhughosh submarines by India’s own Kalvari-class submarines under development by Mazgaon Dock Ltd.

Destroyers

Destroyer ships are those warships escort larger ships or group of ships in battle and destroy the other smaller attackers. A guided missile destroyer is capable of launching guided missile to destroy the attackers. Indian Navy has currently 10 destroyers divided into three classes viz. Rajput Class, Delhi Class and Kolkata Class.

Frigates

Frigates are lighter armed ships to consort the larger ships or group of ships. India has 14 frigates in service divided into four classes viz. Shivalik, Talwar, Brahamputra and Godavari. The Shivalik and Talwar class are multi-role stealth frigate while Brahmaputra and Godavari Class are Guided Missile Frigates.

Corvettes

Corvettes are light warships often deployed for anti-submarine operations. India has 26 Corvettes divided into five classes viz. Kamorta, Kora, Khukri, Abay and Veer Class corvettes.

Mine countermeasure Vessels

These small naval warships are deployed to counter the threats of naval mines. India’s Pondicherry class ships are Mine Countermeasure vessels.

Amphibious transport docks

The amphibious transport docks embarks, transports and lands the land forces for amphibious warfare missions. They are generally designed to transport troops by sea. India’s INS Jalashwa is such amphibious transport dock.

Landing Ships

The Landing ships are used to transport the vehicles, troops and cargo to shore. India has nine landing ships divided into three classes viz. Shardul Class, Magar Class and Kumbhir class.

Patrol Vessels

The Petrol vessels are small naval ships used to patrol the coastal area. They are also used to counter the smuggling, piracy and other such problems.

Naval Bases

In 2005, the Indian Navy commissioned INS Kadamba at Karwar, 100 km from Goa. This is the third operational naval base after Mumbai and Vishakapatnam and the first to be controlled exclusively by the Navy. (The other bases share port facilities with civilian shipping, but this one is for purely naval use.) Built under Phase I of the multi-billion dollar Project Seabird, it is the largest naval base in the region. Asia’s largest Naval Academy INS Zamorin, was inaugurated at Ezhimala, in January 2009 by the Prime Minister of India.

Another naval base is being planned for the eastern shores, near Vishakapatnam at a cost of US$350 million. The base, which will be located fifty km south of Vishakapatnam in Rambilli Mandal, will have comprehensive anti-aircraft, anti-submarine and amphibious capabilities. This east coast base expansion program is in direct response to Chinese PLA Navy activities in the region.

The Indian Navy is setting up a naval station in Madagascar, to monitor and patrol the coast of Mozambique as well as the Southern Indian Ocean. The Indian Navy also has berthing rights in Oman and Vietnam.

Other Established Bases

The navy has bases at Mumbai, Vishakapatnam, Kochi, Goa, Karwar, Lonavala, Port-Blair, Orissa, Chennai, Kolkata, Jamnagar and Kardip (Andaman).

The Various Training Establishments

• Indian Naval Academy – Ezhimala, Kerala
• Seamen Training Centre – INS Chilka, Orissa
• Naval College of Engineering, Lonavala, Maharashtra
• Naval College of Electrical Engineering, Jamnagar, Gujarat
• Naval Institute of Logistics & Management, Mumbai, Maharashtra

Systems and Sensors

BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is becoming the primary anti-ship missile of the Indian Navy. The Indian Navy uses modern technology and weapon systems, most of which are imported from foreign countries. India and Israel are jointly developing the Barak 8 missile system, an improved, longer range version of the Barak 1 air defence missile which is operational on Indian Navy ships. The Barak 1 is used on most of the main ships of the Indian Navy. The Indian Navy’s nuclear deterrence capability is based on Sukanya class ships armed with the Dhanush ballistic missiles that has a range of 350 km.

India has a number of foreign made cruise missile systems, including the Klub SS-N-27. It also has its own Nirbhay cruise missile systems under development. The Sagarika (Oceanic) submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM), which has a range of at least 700 km (some sources claim 1000 km) forms part of India’s nuclear triad. Another successful programme has been the adaptation of the Yakhont anti-ship missile system into the BrahMos by the NPO and the DRDO. The BrahMos has been tailored to Indian needs and uses a large proportion of Indian-designed components and technology, including its fire control systems, transporter erector launchers, and its onboard navigational attack systems. The successful test of BrahMos from INS Rajput (D51) provides Indian Navy with precision land attack capability.

Electronic Warfare and Systems Management

Sangraha is a joint electronic warfare programme of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Navy. The system comprises a family of electronic warfare suites, such as Ajanta and Ellora, for use on different naval platforms capable of intercepting, detecting, and classifying pulsed, carrier wave, pulse repetition frequency agile, frequency agile and chirp radars. The systems employ a modular approach facilitating deployment on various platforms like helicopters, vehicles, and small ships. Certain platforms, apart from ESM (electronic support measures), have ECM (electronic countermeasure) capabilities. Advanced technologies like multiple-beam phased array jammers are employed in the system for simultaneous handling of multiple threats.

The Indian Navy also relies on information technology to face the challenges of the 21st century. The Indian Navy is implementing a new strategy to move from a platform centric force to a network-centric force by linking all shore-based installations and ships via high-speed data networks and satellites. This will help in increased operational awareness. The network is referred to as the Navy Enterprise Wide Network (NEWN). The Indian Navy has also provided training to all its personnel in Information Technology (IT) at the Naval Institute of Computer Applications (NICA) located in Mumbai. Information technology is also used to provide better training, like the usage of simulators for better management of the force.