Cochin Shipyard Does Steel Cutting For The 4th and 5th Anti-Submarine Shallow Water Corvettes
The ₹6,300-crore contract for eight vessels were signed by the Cochin shipyard in April, 2019. Ninety months is the completion time for the entire project.
In December 2013, Defence Acquisition Council of the MoD approved the purchase of 16 shallow water anti-submarine vessels at a cost of ₹13,440 crore. These are to replace Russian-built Abhay-class corvettes commissioned between 1989 and 1991.
In June 2014, under the “Buy and Make India” initiative, the MoD issued a tender to local private sector shipyards. The vessels will be armed with torpedoes, rockets and two 12.7 mm machine guns. They are designed to be able to hunt for Submarines in shallow waters. They will have a complement of 7 officers and 50 sailors.
In October 2017, Cochin Shipyard and Garden Reach emerged has the L1 and L2 bidders respectively. They will manufacture 8 ships each. On 29 April 2019, Ministry of Defence and Garden Reach signed contract valued at ₹6,311 crore (US$840 million) for eight vessels to be delivered between 2022 and 2026. The next day, Ministry of Defence and Cochin Shipyard signed a similar contract for eight vessels with identical terms.
On 1 December 2020, first steel plate for Ship No. BY 523 Mahe the steel cutting ceremony of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts (ASWSWCs) for the Indian Navy was held at the Cochin Shipyard.
On 31 December 2020, steel cutting ceremony of the first ship from GRSE and the second ship of the batch was held. The first ship from GRSE was laid down on 6 August 2021.
A steel-cutting ceremony for the fourth and fifth of these anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft (ASWSWC) to be built by the Cochin Shipyard for the Navy was conducted at the shipyard on Wednesday.
Commodore V. Ganapathy, warship production superintendent of the warship overseeing team (Kochi), conducted the ceremony which marked the beginning of the construction of the fourth and fifth vessels in a series of eight such craft being built by the shipyard.
“These technologically advanced vessels are designed and engineered indigenously and will be equipped with various payloads to cater to the vessels’ functions. The vessel will feature stringent signature and stealth technologies to avoid detection by submarines and other surveillance systems. Significant part of the payloads and solutions will be from Indian firms,” said a release.
These ASWSWC’s are capable of full scale sub-surface surveillance of coastal waters and co-ordinated ASW operations with aircraft. In addition, there vessels will have the capability to interdict/destroy sub-surface targets in coastal waters. They can also be deployed for day and night search and rescue in coastal areas.
