India to buy three stealth frigates from Russia

Aug 2, 2006, 15:20 GMT

New Delhi, Aug 2 (IANS) The Indian government has signed a deal with Russia to purchase three more stealth frigates for the navy at a total cost of Rs.44.47 billion ($996 million), parliament was informed Wednesday.

The contract with Rosoboronexport was signed July 14, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. Each of the ships will cost Rs.14.82 billion and they will be delivered in 2010-11, he added.

'The ships would be fully equipped according to the navy's staff requirements...The decision to induct the three ships was based on the experience of the navy gained in terms of reliability and dependability of the three stealth frigates already inducted.'

Mukherjee had July 6 announced the cabinet committee on security (CCS) had cleared the purchase of the three additional Krivak class frigates, re-christened the Talwar class.

At that time, he had said the three warships would cost Rs.55.14 billion - Rs.51.14 billion for the vessels and Rs.4 billion for 'additional equipment' to be fitted on them.

Mukherjee did not state what this additional equipment would be, but past experience would suggest this would be spent on the Barak anti-missile system that is being jointly developed by Israel and India.

The need for the Baraks had arisen after the Talwar's Russian-made Shtil missile system could not clear the stringent standards the navy had laid down.

While the present version of Barak is a short-range, vertically launched, quick reaction missile designed to intercept and destroy anti-ship missiles in mid-air, an improved, medium-range version is being developed at a cost of some $350 million and will be ready for deployment in the next five years.

This will be fitted in the three new stealth frigates while the existing vessels will be retrofitted with the improved version.

The new missile will have a range of 70 km against the 10-km range of the existing Barak.

A long-range radar and weapons control systems to support the improved Barak are also being developed.

The CCS meeting had also cleared the purchase of 28 submarine-launched KLUB cruise missiles from Russia at a cost of Rs.8.44 billion. The final negotiations for this are believed to be underway.

The land attack missiles will be deployed on the six Kilo-class submarines India has already acquired from Russia and will complement the BrahMos missile India and Russia are developing.

BrahMos has already been deployed on the navy's surface vessels and the army and air force versions are under development. The submarine version is expected to roll out in 2008.

© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service