Rate of building warship dismal says Indian naval chief, advocates PPP model

The Indian navy chief has admitted that the rate at which indigenous ships were being built is nothing but dismal and advocated the public and private production (PPP) model as the way forward.

At an annual press conference ahead of the Navy day on December 4, Verma said, “We want to build ships at a certain pace. However, the current methodology adopted is more time-consuming than those followed by shipyards in other countries.”

Adding further, the chief has said that such a model would be a win-win situation for the navy as well as the public and private sector enterprise. According to Verma, the Navy has currently given orders for 34 ships in three different shipyards but the rate of delivery is only one ship per year.

Seeing the slow rate of delivery, the Navy chief in a statement few days ago, had said, that the Navy will be acquiring 40 warships and new fighter jets from abroad. See here. The Navy plans to order weaponry and equipment worth more than $15 billion in the next 10 to 12 years. Under a long-term plan approved last year, the Navy will procure 60 new warships, submarines, one additional aircraft carrier, maritime surveillance aircraft, C4ISR equipment, a dedicated satellite, and other sea-based assets.

India's first indigenous aircraft carrier will be launched next year and commissioned in 2014, if all goes per plan. Under the modernization plan, the Indian nay is also planning to establish a forward post in Orissa and is also rumoured to be considering buying a U.K. carrier, being manufactured by BAE systems. The Indian navy has also entered a deal the Barack-8 missile system from Israel in a US$1.1 billion deal.

In the meantime, two of the latest and largest Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) – Indian Coast guard Ship Sankalp and Samrat have been found to be faulty. The Halo Traction Gear on-board the two OPVs do not allow helicopters to land, sources in the organisation have revealed to PTI. ICGS Sankalp is the latest ship of the Coast Guard's OPVs and even after about 18 months of its commissioning, it has not been able to operate light weight Chetak choppers from it. The ship was built by the defence-sector Goa Shipyard Limited and was commissioned in May 2008.

The Coast guard, like the navy is undergoing a modernisation program. The Defence Minister A.K. Antony had also announced to increase the vacancies in the organisation by adding 3,000 more personnel, apart from adding 20 fast patrol vehicles (FPVs), 41 interceptor boats, 12 coastal surveillance aircraft (Dorniers) and seven off-shore patrol vehicles to the existing fleet to counter the modern day dynamics of security and geopolitics in the region.