Rajnath Singh to launch India-made warships INS Surat & INS Udaygiri in Mumbai on May 17

Adding more power to the Indian Navy, two indigenously built frontline warships will be launched today (May 17) at Mazagon Docks in Mumbai by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Project 15B dest­royer called Indian Naval Ship (INS) Surat and the Project 17A frigate INS Udaygiri are the warships, designed at the Directorate of Naval Design (DND) and built entirely at MDL. 

"The frontline warships — ‘Surat’ (project 15B Destroyer) and ‘Udaygiri’ (Project 17A Frigate) — are “next generation stealth guided missiles destroyers”, said the Defence Ministry in an official statement.

The Ministry mentioned that the warships are a “true testament of Atmanirbhar Bharat” as approximately 75% of the orders for equipment and systems for the warships were given to indigenous firms including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). 

Two indigenous Indian Navy warships 

INS Surat is the fourth destroyer in Project 15B which is named after the second-largest commercial hub of western India. Built using block construction, the ship involves the hull construction in two different geographical locations, which was then assembled at Mazagon Docks Limited.

While INS Udaygiri is the third ship under Project 17A Frigates, named after the mountain ranges in Andhra Pradesh. The warship equipped with advanced weapons, sensors, and platform management systems is the “reincarnation” of a previous edition of Udaygiri. It is to be noted that numerous challenging operations were observed in the previous editions of three decades, from 18 February 1976 to 24 August 2007.

According to the Defence Ministry, at present, the Indian Navy comprises about 150 ships and submarines and there are more than 50 ships and submarines in the making. 

In December 2021, Indian Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar mentioned that in the last seven years, all 28 ships and submarines commissioned into the Navy were built by India in line with 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'. He added that 37 out of the 39 under-construction naval vessels and ships are being built in Indian shipyards. 

(Image: PTI/ANI)