Indian Navy Gets a $950 Million Boost From Russian Frigates

The Indian Navy is all set to be equipped with two new warships that will be armed with Brahmos missiles. Russia has signed a $950 million deal and the Indian Navy will now be able to aggressively counter the rapid Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean region. 

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Sources stated that the deal was finalized after price negotiations, last week and thus, concluding the long-pending project. This conclusion came before the summit in October between Moscow and New Delhi.

Since the US has brought in sanctions on weapon purchases from Russia in effect; India could carry out the payments for the ships using the rupee-rouble. The deal has been in the process since 2015. Under this ‘2+2’ scheme technology will be transported to an Indian shipyard to build two of the frigates from the start.

The ships have been planned to work with Ukraine-made gas turbines and are expected for to arrive from Russia by 2022, given that the bodies have already been constructed on the Russian navy order that got delayed because of the Ukrainian crisis.

To avoid any obstacles from Ukraine-Russian relations the order for turbines has been placed directly by India with Ukraine. The two frigates will be coming to India after construction to fit the gas turbines at a local yard.

Initially, there have been discussions to bring Indian private sector on board to build two of the ships but the government decided to nominate state-owned Goa Shipyard. It is still unclear on the behalf of the Indian government to follow a competitive process to determine the local partner.

The Goa Shipyard is amidst the financial crises and has failed to deliver the new minesweeper vessels that are urgently required by the Navy.

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