The seventh anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft (ASW SWC), ‘Abhay’, being built by India's leading ship building and repairing company Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), was launched on Friday, by Sandhya Pendharkar, president of Navy Wives Welfare Association (NWWA), Eastern Region.
“Arnala class of ships will replace the in-service Abhay class ASW Corvettes of Indian Navy and are designed to undertake anti-submarine operations in coastal waters, low intensity maritime operations (LIMO) and mine laying operations,” the defence ministry said in a release.
The envisioned capabilities of ASW SWC ships include search attack unit (SAU) and coordinated ASW operations with aircraft, interdiction/destruction of sub surface targets in coastal waters and carrying out search and rescue by day and night in coastal areas. These vessels are propelled by water jets capable of reaching maximum speed of 25 Knots and are compact and loaded with anti-submarine weapons (Light Weight Torpedoes, ASW rockets and Combat Management System).
According to GRSE, weapons and sensors on these vessels include twin triple tubelight weight torpedo tube, rocket launcher, twin anti-torpedo defense system with fire control system, 30 mm close-in weapon systems with EO-FCS, twin 12.7mm gun with stabilised optronic control system, very short range air defense missile (VSHORAD) launcher, low frequency variable depth Ssonar, hull mounted sonar, and expandable bathy thermograph.
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The contract for building eight ASW SWC ships was signed between the ministry of defence and GRSE. These ships are being designed with over 80 per cent indigenous content, ensuring that a major part of the defence production is executed by Indian manufacturing units.