Mumbai's Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) has handed over two large warships to the Indian Navy in a major milestone towards achieving self-reliance in the defence sector.
Guided-missile destroyer Surat is the fourth and last warship of the Visakhapatnam class while Nilgiri is the first stealth-guided missile frigate of the seven in its class.
Both the warships will soon be ceremonially inducted into the Indian Navy. Both warships are equipped with state-of-the-art weapon systems, communications and radars.
Surat is a huge warship weighing 7,400 tonnes in which 300 sailors can be deployed. It can stay at sea for 45 days, cover a distance of 15,000 km and reach a maximum speed of 62 km. It can be fitted with 16 BrahMos missiles and 32 Barak missiles for protection against air attack. This is the first warship of the Indian Navy in which the use of artificial intelligence has given an edge in its action.
Similarly, two Dhruv helicopters equipped with torpedoes and rockets can be deployed on Surat to deal with enemy submarines. Apart from the Shakti electronic warfare suite, it has Kavach decoys to confuse enemy missiles and Marich torpedo defense system to protect against submarines. The Indian Navy has a total of 12 guided missile destroyers of Delhi, Visakhapatnam and Rajput class.
Meanwhile, a total of seven frigates of the Nilgiri class are being built and Nilgiri is the first of them that the navy has received. Nilgiri was launched into the sea in September 2019. Weighing more than six and a half thousand tonnes, Nilgiri has the capacity to accommodate 226 sailors and one helicopter.
It is equipped with eight BrahMos missiles. Barak missiles are fitted to counter air attacks and torpedoes and rockets are fitted to tackle submarines.
It is a stealth frigate and has been specially designed to hide from enemy radars. In August this year, MDL proposed to Brazil to jointly produce six frigates of this class. Currently, the Indian Navy has a total of 12 guided missile frigates of the Shivalik, Talwar and Brahmaputra class.