New Delhi: INS Arnala, Indian Navy’s first anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft (ASWSWC), being built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd, was launched by Rasika Chaube, Financial Advisor (Defence Services), Ministry of Defence, at the Larsen & Toubro shipyard in Kattupalli, Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday.
This is the first of eight such ships being built by GRSE for the Navy. Eight more ASWSWC are being built by Cochin Shipyard Ltd.
Contract for building eight ASW SWC ships was signed between MoD and GRSE, Kolkata on 29 April 2019
The ship has been named Arnala to signify the strategic maritime importance accorded to the island of Arnala (located about 13 Km north of Vasai, Maharashtra) by the great Maratha warrior, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the Ministry of Defence said.
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Arnala class of ships will replace the Abhay class ASW Ships of Indian Navy and are designed to undertake anti-submarine operations in coastal waters and Low Intensity Maritime Operations (LIMO) including subsurface surveillance in littoral waters, the ministry said.
The 77.6m ASW SWC ships have a displacement of 900 tons with a maximum speed of 25 knots and endurance of 1800 NM.
Launch of this ship reinforces our resolve towards completely indigenous shipbuilding as part of Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, the ministry said, adding that the ASW SWC ships will have over 80% indigenous content, ensuring that large scale defence production is executed by Indian manufacturing units.
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