A solemn naming ceremony and launching of the frigate Tushil took place at the Baltic shipyard "Yantar" in Kaliningrad. This is the first of two ships of Project 11356 being built at the plant by order of India.
The frigate of project 11356 was laid down at Yantar in 2013 under the name Admiral Butakov by order of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the press service of the plant said. Later, its construction was suspended. It continued after Russia and India signed an intergovernmental agreement in 2016 on the completion of two ships of this project for the Indian Navy.
Indian Ambassador to Russia Venkatesh Varma, who took part in the ceremony, stressed that these ships are evidence of long-term friendship, as well as the result of long-term military cooperation and reflect the strategic relations between the two countries.
- We highly appreciate the trust of the Indian customer, who decided to continue the construction of Project 11356 frigates at Yantar, - said Ilya Samarin, General Director of the Yantar Shipyard.
Two godmothers participated in the launching of the frigate. The Ambassador's wife, Mrs. Datla Vidya Varma, according to Indian tradition, naming the ship by name, smashed a coconut on its stem. From the Russian side, a bottle of champagne was smashed against the side of the ship by Natalia Palamarchuk, the plant's leading process engineer. Tushil was then moved to a floating dock for launching.
On the second ship of this project - Tamala - the slipway stage of construction is being completed. It is planned to be launched early next year. The transfer of two frigates to the customer should take place in 2023, according to the terms of the contract.
Earlier, in 2012-13, three frigates of Project 11356 were built at the Kaliningrad plant for the Indian Navy: "Tag", "Tarkash" and "Trikand". At that time, the BrahMos missile system was installed on them for the first time - a product of the successful integration of the technological capabilities of Russia and India.
Svetlana Pesotskaya (Kaliningrad region)
