Kolkata: Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd achieved yet another milestone on Thursday, November 16, 2023 by launching the fourth Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASW SWC) barely five months after the launch of the third ship. GRSE is building eight ASW SWCs for the Indian Navy.
The warship was launched by Smt Manju Naithani, wife of Vice Admiral Sandeep Naithani, AVSM, VSM, Chief of Materiel, Indian Navy. Vice Admiral Naithani was the Chief Guest at the event.
Cmde P R Hari IN (Retd), Chairman and Managing Director, GRSE, Vice Admiral Kiran K Deshmukh, CWP&A, India Navy, DIG Subrato Ghosh, ICG (Retd.), Director (Personnel), GRSE & other Senior officials of the Indian Navy, GRSE & Larsen & Toubro were present at the occasion.
The launch is an important event in any warship’s build-cycle. This is when she tastes water for the first time under her keel. This is also the day when she gets her name and the crest which symbolises her. The ASW SWC launched on November 16 has been named ‘INS Amini’ after an oval-shaped island in the Lakshadweep archipelago. It signifies the strategic maritime importance accorded to the island of Amini, located about 400 kilometres west of Kochi.
INS Amini is the reincarnation of another warship of the same name that joined the Indian Navy on December 12, 1974. Built at a shipyard in the erstwhile Soviet Union, it was an Anti-Submarine Corvette and participated in several operations before being decommissioned on September 16, 2002.
ASW SWCs are considered extremely important for any Navy as they require less draft and can operate close to the coast, searching for underwater threats and neutralising enemy assets such as submarines and mines. Equipped with advanced sonar and armed with latest weaponry such as lightweight torpedoes and ASW rockets, these warships will pack a tremendous punch, once they are commissioned into the Indian Navy. Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) is the Classification Society for these ships.
Of the 40 warships on order from the Indian Navy at various shipyards in the country, GRSE is building 19 warships. These include three Advanced Frigates under the Navy’s ambitious Project 17A, four Survey Vessels (Large), eight ASWSWCs and four Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels (NGOPVs). Of the 19 warships, ten (apart from the one launched during the day) have already been launched and are undergoing various stages of outfitting.
This premier defence shipyard in the country has augmented its capacity through tie-ups with capable private shipyards like Larsen & Toubro under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for part construction of ships, which will enable GRSE to marry the operational flexibility of the private entity, with it’s own technical competence built over the years. GRSE has also gone in for massive modernisation and has adopted the latest technologies in the field of shipbuilding. This has helped the shipyard maintain schedules and add more indigenous content to warships being built.
GRSE has also succeeded in creating an entire ecosystem of shipbuilding in the region through tie-ups with MSMEs and OEMs.
Speaking at the occasion, Vice Admiral Naithani commended GRSE for its performance. “I have been made aware that GRSE has achieved over 90% indigenisation in building these advanced warships. I am glad to note that the ship which is being launched today has achieved more than 40% progress at this stage. These milestones are indeed an achievement to the nation’s shipbuilding industry in general and for GRSE and the Indian Navy in particular.” he said.
Cmde Hari spoke on efforts being made by GRSE to keep abreast with the latest technology to build state-of-the-art warships for the Navy and Indian Coast Guard. “GRSE & Navy go a long way back and our partnership has paid rich dividends to the nation’s mission towards enhancing maritime capability. 70 warships we have delivered to the Indian Navy so far and 19 more are under various stages of construction. Of these 19, 10 ships have already been launched and today the 11th shall be launched. Coming specifically to the Anti-Submarine shallow watercraft project, 16 ships are being built for the Indian Navy- 08 by GRSE and 08 by another Public Sector undertaking shipyard. Of these 16, 04 including the one which is being launched today, I am happy to state that all these 04 ships have been built by GRSE,” he said.
