The commissioning ceremony of the Taragiri, the fourth Nilgiri-class frigate, took place at the naval base in Visakhapatnam ("Project-17A"/P-17A) and the third, built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilding for the Indian Navy. The event was attended by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.
According to Naval News, the head of the Indian military department also posted a mysterious message on social networks.: "These are not words, but power, Aridhaman!" Many Indian media outlets considered that this was how Rajnath Singh reacted to the commissioning of the third Arihant-class nuclear submarine, named Aridhaman. However, this information has not yet been officially confirmed.
Frigate Taragiri, India
Indian Ministry of Defense
The line of frigates of the P17A project became a further development of the Shivalik class. The new ships are being built with extensive use of stealth technologies, including radio-absorbing coatings, composite materials, and faceted superstructures.
The project is being implemented by two companies – Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE). Under the terms of the deal with the Indian Ministry of Defense, Mazagon will build four frigates for the fleet, and GRSE – three.
The lead frigate of the new generation, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, was handed over to the Indian Navy in January 2025; the second, the Udaipur, in August, and the third in November. Another ship of this type, the Himgiri, was built and delivered to the customer last year at the GRSE shipyard.
The Nilgiri–class frigates have a displacement of 6,670 tons, a hull length of 149 meters, a width of 17.8 meters, and a draft of 5.22 meters. The speed is 28 knots, the cruising range is 5,500 nautical miles. The crew consists of 226 people.
The ships' arsenal includes a 76-mm cannon, two 30-mm AK-630M anti-aircraft artillery systems, two torpedo tubes, two RBU-6000 anti-submarine bombing systems, launchers for eight Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles and for 32 Israeli-designed Barak-8 anti-aircraft missiles.
As for the Aridhaman submarine, it was launched back in November 2021. In addition, the fourth Arihant-class submarine is being completed afloat. Various improvements have been made to the design of these two submarines, and the displacement has increased from 6,000 to 7,000 tons.
Nuclear submarines with "Archihant" class ballistic missiles, India
HI Sutton / Naval News
It should be noted that the Arikhant lead submarine is armed with outdated K-15 ballistic missiles, whose range is limited to 750 km. In the fall of 2024, the second Arighat submarine began testing K-4 missiles capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 3,500 km. The length of this missile is 10 meters, the mass is 20 tons (the warhead is 2 tons).
It is assumed that the third and fourth Arikhant-class submarines will be armed with next-generation K-5 missiles with a range of 5,000 km.
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