India, Russia to build stealth frigates

India, Russia to build stealth frigates

News:

1. India recently signed a $500 mn deal with Russia to locally manufacture two stealth frigates with technology transfer.

Important Facts:

2. Background:

• In October 2016, India and Russia signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for four Krivak or Talwar stealth frigates two to be procured directly from Russia and two to be built by Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL).
• India had earlier procured six frigates weighing 4000 tonnes of the same class in two different batches, the Talwar class and the upgraded Teg class.
• The navy’s medium term plans envisage increasing warship strength from the current 140-odd, to 198 warships by 2027.

3. Russia was declared the lowest bidder in the Army’s Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) deal and recently India signed a $5.43 bn deal for five S-400 long range air defence regiments.

4. About the recent deal:

• The deal is part of the umbrella agreement to acquire four such warships for the Indian Navy.
• Construction of frigates at Goa shipyard will begin in 2020, with first one being delivered in 2026 and the second a year later.
• Frigates will be armed with the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, apart from other weapon systems and sensors.
• The work on the two frigates will start in two years by mid-2020 and is expected to be completed by 2026- 2027.
• India will separately acquire the Zorya gas-turbine engines to power the frigates four for each warship at a total cost of around Rs 1,000 crore from Ukraine.

5. Significance:

• The series of deals with Russia come in the backdrop of looming US sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) law.
• CAATSA seeks to prevent countries from buying Russian weapons or Iranian oil.
• The four warships will add to the six such Russian stealth frigates, three Talwar-class and three Teg-class warships, already inducted into the Indian Navy from 2003-2004 onwards.