TSAMTO, July 1. The Ministry of Defense of India announced the keel laying ceremony of the seventh Nilgiri-class frigate held on June 28 at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. (MDL) shipyard in Mumbai ("Project-17A" / P-17A), intended for the country's Navy.
As reported by TSAMTO, the Ministry of Defense of India announced the signing of contracts for the supply of seven Project-17A frigates on February 20, 2015. The total cost of the order is estimated at 480 billion. The frigates are to be built by two state-owned shipbuilding companies: Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) in Mumbai and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) in Kolkata. MDL acts as the head shipyard and builds four frigates, GRSE - three.
Steel cutting for the construction of the lead ship of the series, "Nilgiri", began at MDL on February 17, 2017, the keel laying took place on December 28, 2017. The frigate was launched on September 28, 2019. As planned, the ship will be handed over to the Indian Navy by August 2022. The second ship, the Udaygiri, was launched in May 2022, the laying of the third took place in September 2020.
The keel of the first frigate, Himgiri, was laid at the GRSE enterprise in Kolkata on November 10, 2018. In December 2020, it was launched. The laying of the keel of the second frigate took place in January 2020, the third – in March 2021.
Frigates from the second to the sixth will receive the names "Himgiri", "Udaygiri", "Dunagiri", "Taragiri", "Vindhuagiri" and "Mahendragiri". MDL is expected to deliver its ships to the Indian Navy in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, and GRSE in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Frigates are being built according to a project developed by the Directorate of Naval Design of the Indian Navy (DND), using the latest integrated construction methodology, which provides for more thorough preliminary preparation to improve quality and significantly reduce construction time. GRSE and MDL have reached an agreement with the Italian Fincantieri, which acts as a supplier of "know-how" to improve technologies and expand the capabilities of ship construction.
The Nilgiri frigate is an improved version of the Shivalik-class frigate built within the framework of the "Project-17" and differs from it by improved stealth indicators, as well as weapons and detection systems of national production.
The length of the P-17A project ship is 149 m, width – 17.8 m, draft – 5.15 m, standard displacement – 6670 tons, crew – 226 people. The frigates are equipped with a main power plant of the CODOG type (combined diesel or gas), including two LM2500 gas turbine engines from General Electric and two MAN 12V28/33D STC diesel engines with a capacity of 6000 kW each. The maximum design speed is 28 knots, the cruising range at a speed of 16-18 knots is 5,500 nautical miles. The armament of each ship will include 127-mm AU Oto Melara, SAM "Barak-8" with radar ELM-2248 and 32 missiles, 8 supersonic PKR "Brahmos" (PJ-10), two three-tube 324-mm torpedo tubes, two 30-mm ZAK AK-630, two jet bombing RBU-6000 installations. Two medium helicopters can be placed on board.
