INS Arnala

News: Indian Navy has officially commissioned INS Arnala, its first Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft, at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam.

About INS Arnala

• It is the first of the sixteen Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts (ASW SWCs) delivered to the Indian Navy.
• Manufactured by: It has been designed and constructed by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata, under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with L&T Shipbuilders.
• Naming: The warship has been named after the historic Arnala Fort off Vasai in Maharashtra.
• It is a 77-meter-long warship, with a gross tonnage of over 1490 tonnes.
• It is the largest Indian Naval warship to be propelled by a Diesel Engine-Waterjet combination.
• Capabilities: It is designed for a broad range of Anti-Submarine operations such as –
  • Sub-Surface Surveillance and Interdiction
  • Search and Rescue Missions
  • Low-Intensity Maritime Operations (LIMO)
• Equipments: The ship is equipped with advanced underwater sensors such as –
  • Hull-Mounted Sonar Abhay
  • Underwater Acoustic Communication System (UWACS)
  • Low-Frequency Variable Depth Sonar (LFVDS) – making them capable of comprehensive underwater surveillance.
• The need for ASW SWCs
  • The Indian Navy plans to deploy all 16 ASW-SWC vessels to safeguard India’s sixteen major ports, establishing a robust anti-submarine shield along the coastline.
  • These ASW vessels will replace the ageing Abhay-class corvettes that entered service with the Indian Navy in 1989.
• Importance
  • The commissioning of INS Arnala not only reinforces India’s defence capability but also highlights the triumph of indigenous design, engineering, and manufacturing, realising the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.