In a statement the Indian Ministry of Defense said, it has conducted a launching ceremony of its fourth destroyer of the P-15 Bravo-class destroyer and the second frigate of the Project 17A class at the Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) shipyard in Mumbai.
While the new destroyer has been named as “Surat”, the frigate is called “Udayugiri”. Both ships have been built at the MDL plant in Mumbai under designs developed by the Directorate of Naval Design (DND).
In December 2010, the Indian government’s Security Committee had approved the construction of four stealth destroyers under the Project-15B Bravo-class program. The contract for their supply was signed on January 28, 2011 at a cost of $4.89 billion (293.4 billion rupees). The Surat destroyer was designed by the Indian Navy’s Design Directorate with an emphasis on stealth.
The destroyer was handed over to the Indian Navy on October 28, 2021, and entered into service on November 2021.
In September 2016, the second Mormugao destroyer was launched, while the third destroyer was launched on April 20, 2019. The second destroyer in the series is planned to be put into service in 2022, and Imphal in 2023. The project is expected to be completed by 2024.
The keel of the fourth ship took place in July 2018.
About the Visakhapatnam-class destroyer
The Visakhapatnam class of destroyers are also known as P-15 Bravo-class; they have been designed to launch cruise missiles and are constructed with an emphasis on stealth technology. They displace 7,400 tons, and are 163 meters in length.
Ships in this class are powered by two Zorya M36E gas turbines, with four DT-59 reversible gas turbines and two RG-54 gearboxes. They are powered by two Bergen / GRSE KVM-diesel engines providing 9,900 horsepower, and have four 1 MWe Wärtsilä WCM-1000 generator sets driving Cummins KTA50G3 engines and Kirloskar 1 MV AC generators.
According to publicly available documents, this class of ships have a speed of within 30 knots – 56 kmph.
They are equipped with the following radar systems: IAI EL / M-2248 MF-STAR S-Band ESA radar, BEL RAWL-02 / LW-08 L-Band air-search radar, and Terma / Tata Scanter-6002 X-Band surface-search radar. As for the sonars, the Visakhapatnam-class destroyer have BEL HUMSA-NG active/passive sonar and BEL “Nagin” active towed-array sonar.
These ships have four 8-cell VLS, for a total of 32 Barak 8 surface-to-air missiles, two 8-cell VLS, for 16 BrahMos anti-ship missiles, four 533 mm torpedo tubes, and two RBU- 6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers.
They are also equipped with several guns including a OTO Melara 76 mm naval gun, four AK-630M CIWS, and two OFT 12.7 mm M2 Stabilized Remote Controlled Gun.
