Government nod to Rs 11,930 crore Airbus-TATA consortium bid to replace Avro fleet

The 6,800-tonne INS Kolkata, the largest-ever warship to be built in India, was commissioned in August 2014. The warship is country's biggest and most powerful guided missile-destroyer.

The INS Kolkata is 60 per cent indigenous and has very good stealth capabilities and includes state-of-the-art surveillance and weapon systems. INS Kolkata, which is the first of the three warships under the Project-15B, was sanctioned at Rs 3,051 crore and now the project cost is pegged at Rs 11,662 crore.

INS Kolkata is part of the 44 warships currently on order in Indian shipyards, as part of the endeavour to steadily build a three-dimensional blue-water Navy capable of taking care of India's huge strategic interests in the region stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Malacca Strait.

Image by Indian Navy

Giving a boost to India's defence, the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Technology Demonstrator TD-3 recently made its successful maiden flight. LCH is an indigenous attack helicopter development programme being undertaken by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

According to HAL, LCH was proposed to meet IAF's requirement of a dedicated light helicopter for combat operations. HAL claims that the LCH TD-3 will be an effective weapon platform to deliver precision strikes at high altitude.

HAL has already developed two prototypes of the LCH - the Technology Demonstrator (TD1) and the TD2.

Image by HAL

In a big boost to India's defence capabilities, and specially that of the Navy, a Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Prototype 1 recently had a successful test flight from a Shore Based Test Facility in Goa.

LCA (Navy) is an indigenously designed and developed 4th plus generation combat aircraft, meant to operate from the decks of aircraft carriers.

LCA (Navy) is designed with stronger landing gears to absorb forces exerted by the ski jump ramp during take-off, to be airborne within 200 m as against 1000 m required for normal runways, says DRDO.

Image from DRDO

INS Sumitra, an indigenously built naval offshore patrol vessel (NOPV), was commissioned into the naval fleet in September. This is the Navy's largest offshore patrol vessel.

The 2200-tonne vessel is the biggest NOPV to be developed at Goa Shipyard. The vessel is the fourth in the series of indigenous NOPV developed for Indian Navy.

It also has medium and short range weapons installed in it. They include 76mm guns, Close-in Weapon System (CIWS), electronic support and a communication intelligence system. It has a helipad to operate one light weight Dhruv helicopter.

In a major boost for both, the Indian Navy and Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL), the Sindhughosh-class diesel-electric submarine - INS Sindhukirti, which has been undergoing a medium refit at HSL, was undocked at the yard.

According to senior HSL officials, the submarine is expected to be handed over to the Indian Navy in the next few months after it undertakes trials at sea.

The medium refit, which is estimated to have cost around Rs 800-900 crore, took nearly seven years for the submarine to be undocked at the shipyard.

India's first indigenously developed Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Air-to-Air missile 'Astra' was tested successfully in 2014. The indigenously developed missile from the DRDO is an all-weather weapon with active Radar terminal guidance.

According to DRDO, the missile boasts of excellent ECCM features, smokeless propulsion and process improved effectiveness in multi-target scenario.

The Astra missile was test fired from a Sukhoi Su-30MKI. The missiles have undergone rigorous testing on Su-30 in the captive mode for avionics integration and seeker evaluation in 2013.

Image by: DRDO

After a gap of over two decades, India is operating two aircraft carriers in its maritime zone with the arrival of its largest warship INS Vikramaditya in the Arabian Sea where it is now operating with INS Viraat.

The Indian Navy has two aircraft carriers at sea after over 20 years. INS Vikramaditya is designed to boost India's maritime capabilities.

In Indian Navy, the warship with a length of 284m will have MiG-29K naval combat aircraft along with Kamov 31 and Kamov 28 anti-submarine warfare and maritime surveillance helicopters.

Image by Indian Navy

In October, India successfully test-fired its first indigenously designed and developed long-range subsonic cruise missile 'Nirbhay' with a strike range of over 1,000 kms from the Integrated Test Range (ITR).

The 1000-km-class cruise missile capable of striking deep into enemy territory, has been designed and developed by DRDO at it's aeronautics R&D laboratory ADE (Aeronautical Development Establishment) based in Bengaluru.

The missile is yet another giant step forward in India's technological capabilities for design development and leading to production sophisticated weapons platforms and equipment for the armed forces, officials have said.

Image by: DRDO