INS Surat And Frigate INS Udaygiri:
The Defence Minister launched the Indian Navy destroyer warship INS Surat and frigate INS Udaygiri in Mumbai.
INS Surat:
- ‘Surat’ is the fourth ship of Project 15B Destroyers which heralds a significant makeover of the P15A (Kolkata Class) Destroyers.
- The first ship (Visakhapatnam) of this class was commissioned in 2021. The second (Mormugao) and third (Imphal) ships have been launched and are at different stages of outfitting/ trials.
- It is named after the commercial capital of the state of Gujarat and also the second largest commercial hub of western India after Mumbai.
- Surat city has a rich maritime & ship building history and vessels built at the city in the 16th and 18th centuries were known for their longevity (of more than 100 years).
- The ship Surat has been built using the Block construction methodology.
- This methodology includes hull construction at two different geographical locations and has been joined together at MDL, Mumbai.
INS Udaygiri:
- It is the third ship of Project 17A frigates.
- The ship ‘Udaygiri’ is named after a mountain range in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
- ‘Udaygiri’ is the reincarnation of erstwhile ‘Udaygiri’, the Leander Class ASW Frigate, which saw numerous challenging operations in its illustrious service to the country spanning over three decades from 1976 to 2007.
Progress under P17A:
- Under the P17A program, a total of seven ships, with 04 at Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL), Mumbai and 03 at GRSE are under construction.
- Various novel concepts and technologies like Integrated Construction, Mega Block Outsourcing, Project Data Management/ Project Lifecycle Management (PDM/PLM) etc have been adopted for the first time in indigenous Warship Design and Construction in this project.
