Sailing at a Snail's Pace ; Shipyards in India Take Years to Deliver Warships, Compelling the Navy to Shoulder the Price of Imports
Summary
It was an uncharacteristically forthright A.K. Antony at a recent seminar in the Capital. "The delays caused by India's shipyards are not good for the country's prestige. They must modernise," the defence minister emphasised, breaking away from his speech to sound a warning on the problem dogging the Indian Navy. On the face of it, the navy has embarked on an unprecedented buildup, acquiring 33 warships and last year, it received a generous Rs 9,000 crore to bankroll its ambitious shipbuilding plans for a blue water navy.
The problem lies in the defence shipyards building a majority of these warships: Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in Mumbai, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) in Kolkata and the Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL). "The current shipbuilding capability does not match our requirements," says Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta. Here's why. To maintain the existing force of 135 warships-each with an average lifespan of around 25 years-the navy will have to, every year, induct six new warships and one submarine to replace retiring ships. At present, primarily because of the snail's pace at which they are built, only two to three warships are inducted every year. The 33 warships currently under construction are meant to replace the navy's retiring warships as per present estimates. The question is whether they will be completed on time. For instance, the Shivalik, the first of the three stealth frigates, is yet to join the navy even four years after it was launched by MDL. Similar delays plague the other shipyards. GRSE Kolkata takes nine years to build a frigate (a 5,000-tonne warship), which is nearly three times what it takes a South Korean shipyard.See the full content of this document
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Sailing at a Snail's Pace ; Shipyards in India Take Years to Deliver Warships, Compelling the Navy to Shoulder the Price of Imports
Of the two main stages in warship construction, first is fabrication, wherein the bare hull is welded together and launched into the water. This is followed by outfitting, when the warship is fitted with radars, electroni...
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