DRDO, foreign conflicts cast shadow over two major indigenous warships

NEW DELHI: Long delays in DRDO projects as well as the raging Israel-Hamas and Crimean conflicts have cast a long shadow over two major indigenous warships, destroyer INS Kolkata and anti-submarine warfare corvette INS Kamorta, slated for induction later this month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to commission the 6,800-tonne INS Kolkata, the largest-ever warship to be built in India, in Mumbai on Saturday. Defence minister Arun Jaitley, in turn, will do the honours for the 3,300-tonne INS Kamorta at Vizag on August 23.

Much like aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, which was dedicated to the nation by Modi in June, INS Kolkata is also somewhat naked in the absence of long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM) systems to tackle enemy aircraft, drones and missiles.

Sanctioned in 2005 at a cost of Rs 2,606 crore to arm major Indian warships, the joint DRDO-Israeli Aerospace Industries development project is yet to deliver the requisite LR-SAMs with an interception range of 70-km. Similarly, INS Kamorta does not have a medium-range SAM system.

Moreover, INS Kolkata and INS Kamorta are also bereft of critical advanced light towed array sonars (ALTAS), which tail behind warships to detect and track enemy submarines on the prowl. Though both have hull-mounted sonars, towed array ones provide better detection capabilities.

While the Navy's attempt to buy towed sonars from abroad is still stuck in the cumbersome procurement process, DRDO has failed to deliver on its own Rs 114 crore ALTAS project till now.
The Navy, however, is not too ruffled at the moment, celebrating as it is the induction of two major warships in a major boost to domestic shipbuilding.

"Both INS Kolkata and INS Kamorta are state-of-the-art warships, packed with other weapons and sensors, even if they have suffered from delays" said controller of warship production and acquisitions Vice Admiral AV Subhedar on Wednesday.

But the main supplier of gas turbines and their spare-parts for Indian warships, M/s Zorya, is based in Ukraine, which is locked in a four-month old war with rebels backed by Russia.

"Most of our suppliers are located outside the conflict zone," he said. The force, however, is closely tracking the Crimean crisis after conducting "an analysis" and "identifying alternatives".

Similarly, the Hamas-Israel conflict is being kept under watch since the "final hot tests" for the LR-SAM missiles are slated for September-October.

"The delay was due to technical glitches, which have now been resolved. Based on success of the tests, we will begin to induct the missiles. INS Kolkata has heavy-duty guns, rockets, electronic warfare suites and chaff systems for protection," said Rear Admiral AB Singh.

The DRDO-IAI project is vital for plugging air defence gaps in India's operational capabilities.

In addition to the Rs 2,606 crore naval project, the SAM system is also being developed for IAF under a bigger Rs 10,076 crore programme. The SAM systems, once ready, are to be produced in bulk by defence PSU Bharat Dynamics.

INS Kolkata and INS Kamorta are part of the 44 warships currently on order in Indian shipyards at a cost of over Rs 2 lakh crore, as part of the plan 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.