Two warships of different classes were launched into the water, while the keel of a third vessel was laid on Tuesday at Larsen & Toubro (L&T) shipyard at Kattupalli in Chennai. All these are being built by Kolkata-based defence shipyard Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE).
The ships launched were Anjadip, the 3rd Anti-Submarine Shallow Water Craft (ASWSWC), and Sanshodhak, the 4th Survey Vessel Large (SVL) while the keel was laid for the 7th ASWSWC, GRSE said in a statement. Part of the construction has been sub-contracted to L&T Shipbuilding.
“We launched the first SVL on December 5, 2021, and thereafter we have been launching a ship every six months with the last ship being launched today. As far as the ASW Shallow Watercraft Project is concerned, we launched the first ship on December 20, 2022, and are churning out a ship every month and we intend to maintain this tempo,” said Cmde P R Hari (Retd), Chairman and Managing Director, GRSE.
The contract for building four SVL ships was signed between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and GRSE Kolkata on October 30, 2018. As per the build strategy, the first ship would be built at GRSE, Kolkata, and the construction of the remaining three ships up to the outfitting stage has been subcontracted to L&T Shipbuilding. Similarly, the contract for building eight ASW SWC ships was signed between MoD and GRSE on April 29, 2019, and four ships are being built at GRSE in Kolkata and the balance four ships sub-contracted to L&T Shipbuilding.
Anjadip is named after an island close to India’s western coast that is now part of the Indian Naval base INS Kadamba. Anjadip offered strong resistance in 1961 when India took back Goa from the Portuguese. The island also has a memorial for the brave Indian marines who were martyred there. This ship is also the reincarnation of a Soviet-era ASW ship of the Indian Navy which was decommissioned in December 2003.
“The ASWSWCs require less draft and can operate close to the coast, searching for underwater threats and neutralising enemy assets such as midget submarines and mines. Equipped with advanced sonar and armed with the latest weaponry, such as lightweight torpedoes and ASW rockets, these warships will pack a tremendous punch, once they become operational,” the statement added.
