Kolkata, June 3 (IANS) Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Limited is keenly awaiting the signing of the contract for Next Generation Corvettes (NGCs) for the Indian Navy, officials said on Wednesday.

The Navy wants eight of these warships.

Though nearly everything has been finalised for this project worth nearly Rs 40,000 crore, a final approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) is awaited.

GRSE emerged as the lowest bidder for the project and is likely to bag the order for five of the warships.

The remaining three are likely to be built by Goa Shipyard Limited.

According to officials, the NGCs will feature “distributed lethality”, providing a massive strike capability from relatively small, highly mobile platforms.

Their displacement will be about 3,500 tonnes and the ships will have a top speed of nearly 32 knots. They will have an endurance of 30 days without replenishment.

“These warships will be equipped with eight Extended Range Brahmos cruise missiles. They will also have 16-32 Vertical Launch Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missiles alongside AK-630 close-in weapon system for air defence,” an official said.

For anti-submarine operations, the NGCs will be fitted with advanced hull-mounted sonars, active towed array sonars, and triple-tube torpedo launchers. They will also accomodate a multi-role helicopter (like the ALH Dhruv or Sea King).

The warships will be fitted with ELM-2248 MF-STAR AESA radar, state-of-the-art electronic warfare suites (VARUNA ESM + SHAKTI), and target tracking systems.

GRSE, which has delivered the largest number of warships to the Navy and Coast Guard (118) is now building about 40 platforms.

Only nine of these are warships.

At the recent launch of a Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessel, GRSE Chairman and Managing Director Commodore P R Hari, Indian Navy (Retd), urged the Navy to place orders soon to help the shipyard decide whether more orders for commercial vessels can be accepted.

–IANS

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