Keel laying ceremony of MDL's 3rd stealth frigate of Project 17A for the Indian Navy.

Vice Admiral S R Sarma – COM & CWP&A of the Indian Navy and Shri V L Kantha Rao Additional Secretary (Defence Production) laid the keel of the third ship (Yard- 12653) of the prestigious P17A class stealth frigates on 10 September 2020.
Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Keel Laid for Third Indian Navy Project 17A Stealth Frigate. (Picture source: Indian Navy)

The keel-laying ceremony was conducted through an e-platform in the presence of Vice-Admiral R B Pandit, Chief of Staff, HQWNC and Vice Admiral Narayan Prasad (IN Retd.) – CMD MDL.

Seven frigates under P17A series will be constructed of which four are being constructed in MDL and three in GRSE with MDL as the lead yard. The P17A class frigates are being built using indigenously developed steel and fitted with weapons and sensors along with the Integrated Platform Management System. These ships are having stealth features.

Construction of P17A ships differs in the very concept of warship building by way of adoption of the modern technology ‘Integrated Construction (IC)’ where the blocks are pre-outfitted before joining to reduce the build period of warships. When commissioned the platforms will enhance the combat capability of the Indian Naval fleet.

The function was attended by Rear Admiral G K Harish, DGND, Commodore T V Thomas (IN Retd.), Director (CP&P), MDL, Rear Admiral A K Saxena (IN Retd.), Director (Shipbuilding), Commander Jasbir Singh (IN Retd.), Director (S&HE), MDL, Shri Sanjeev Singhal, Director (Finance), MDL, Shri Mahesh Chandra, CVO, MDL along with senior executives from MDL & Navy through an e-ceremony including the Warship Overseeing Team.

Rendering of P17 Stealth Frigate. (Picture source: Indian Navy)

About the P17 A class frigates:

The P17A class frigates will have enhanced stealth features, and will also feature better roll stabilisation and a discreet visual profile. These ships are being built using indigenously developed steel and fitted with state-of-the-art weapon and sensor systems along with advanced Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS).

The 6,670-tonne frigates will be equipped with Barak 8 long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM), BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, EL/M-2248 MF-STAR multi-function active electronically scanned array (AESA) naval radar system, Ajanta electronic warfare (EW) system and Humsa-NG sonar.

Each P17A frigate will be powered by two GE LM2500 marine gas turbines and two diesel engines in a combined diesel or gas (CODOG) turbine configuration. The Industrial and Marine Gas Turbine division of the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is assembling the LM2500 gas turbines in India under license from GE (General Electric).

The crew complement of the frigates will be reduced from the existing 257 (including 35 officers) to about 150 by using high levels of automation, which will reduce the operational costs by around 20 percent and result in higher operational availability of the warships.