Indian Navy Ship (INS) Arnala, the first of 16 anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft (ASW-SWC) being built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd in India for the Indian Navy, was launched on Tuesday at Larsen & Toubro’s (L&T’s) Kattupalli shipyard near Chennai.

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.

Indigenously developed ‘Arnala’ made its first contact with the water of the Bay of Bengal at 10.40 am at the launch ceremony presided over by Rasika Chaube, financial adviser (defence services) of the defence ministry. In keeping with the Naval maritime tradition, Chaube launched the ship to the chanting of invocation from Atharva Veda.

The ship has been named ‘Arnala’ to signify the strategic maritime importance accorded to the island of Arnala, located about 13 kilometres north of Vasai, Maharashtra, by Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

The ‘Arnala’ class of ships will replace the ‘Abhay’ class ASW ships of the Indian Navy. These are designed to undertake anti-submarine operations in coastal waters and low-intensity maritime operations (LIMO), including subsurface surveillance in littoral waters. The 77.6-metre-long ASW-SWC ships have a displacement of 900 tonnes with a maximum speed of 25 knots and endurance of 1800 nautical miles (NM).

These ships will be capable of full-scale sub-surface surveillance of coastal waters as well as search and attack operations. They will also be capable of carrying out coordinated anti-submarine operations with aircraft. These ships will have combat management systems on board and will be armed with lightweight torpedoes as well as anti-submarine warfare rockets. These ships will have a complement of 57 personnel, including seven officers.

Their three water jets (fitted to marine diesel engines) will provide greater maneuverability and a maximum speed of 25 knots. The greatest advantage is that these vessels will require a draft of only 2.7 metres, allowing them to access the coasts easily in search of sub-surface threats.

Commodore P.R. Hari, IN (Retd), Chairman and Managing Director, GRSE, said during his address that when the ship is delivered to the Navy, it will have 88% indigenous content. He highlighted the importance of timely decision-making by all stakeholders to achieve best results.

"I would like to highlight one peculiar aspect of indigenisation. It is like a double-edged sword. While the intent is good and we must indigenise, all of us must be aware of the implications of indigenisation, especially for warship building projects which have tight timelines. While this warship will have 88 per cent indigenous content when delivered, the balance 12 per cent imported equipment and systems are already delivered on schedule”.

"It is with this 88 per cent that we are struggling. I completely agree that the pains and struggles of indigenisation are natural when the nation is looking at 100 per cent indigenisation by 2047. So that is where all the stakeholders, all the decision makers, the shipyards and our industry partners must realise that timely decisions are most important to ensure that 'Make in India' initiatives are successful," Commodore Hari said.

Incidentally, GRSE became the only defence public sector unit (DPSU) shipyard in India to be honoured with the Raksha Mantri’s Award 2022 for designing the most silent ship. This silent ship was the ASWSWC that was launched.

Image source: PTI