GRSE hands over fourth anti-sub ship to Indian Navy

The fourth anti submarine warfare (ASW) corvette of Project-28, christened 'Kavaratti', was launched today at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE), Kolkata.

Chief of Naval Staff Admiral RK Dhowan acknowledged the excellent work done by GRSE for contributing towards achieving the Indian Navy's dream of transforming itself from a ''Buyers Navy'' to ''Builders Navy''. He also commended the work of DGND and his team at Directorate of Naval Design in designing state of the art warships for the country.

The four ships of Project-28 built by GRSE, Kolkata, have been designed indigenously by the Directorate of Naval Design, New Delhi and builtusing high grade steel (DMR 249A) produced in India.

With a displacement of 3,300 tonnes, the sleek and magnificent ASW Corvettes span 109.1 meters in length and 13.7 meters at the beam. They are propelled by four diesel engines to achieve speeds in excess of 25 knots and have an endurance of more than 3000 Nm.

The P-28 corvettes also boast of "firsts" such as the revolutionary rail-less Helo Traversing System, foldable hangar door, use of personnel locator system and use of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) superstructure integrated with the steel hull in the third and fourth ships of the Class.

These ships have common raft mounted gear box and diesel engines, which give the vessels very low radiated underwater noise.

This is well complemented with an efficient propeller with very high cavitation inception speed.

The P-28 Ships also have total atmospheric control system (TACS) and an Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) which include Integrated Bridge System as well as Battle Damage Control System. The ASW Corvettes also incorporate new design concepts for improved survivability, sea keeping, stealth and manoeuvrability. Enhanced stealth features have been achieved by including Low Radar Cross Section (RCS) signature through full beam superstructure, inclined ship sides and reduced Infra Red (IR) signature by use of 'Infra Red Suppression System (IRSS) device' for cooling the Engine and Diesel Alternator exhausts.

The ships are also equipped to carry and operate one multiple role helicopter.

Kavaratti will also be equipped with state of art weapons and sensors, including a medium range gun made by Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd, torpedo tube launchers as well as rocket launchers made by Larsen & Tubro, close-in weapon system made by Gun and Shell Factory and chaff system made by the Machine Tool Prototype Factory.