Indian Navy poised for phenomenal growth

Indian Navy is poised for a phenomenal 35 per cent growth in the number of platforms (ships and submarines) in the next 15 years during which new types of platforms employing new technologies are planned to be inducted, Vice Admiral B. Kannan, Chief of Material, Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy), has said.
Addressing an elite gathering of Indian Army, Navy, Coast Guard  personnel and captains of industry during a one day seminar on ‘Building the Builders Navy: Accelerating Self-reliance Through Partnership,’ jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and National Maritime Foundation (NMF) in Chennai, he stated: “This would not only give ample opportunities to our industries to participate in the indigenous activities but also give them a chance to explore the emerging international market in our maritime region where many other smaller Navies operate.”
Elaborating the history of maritime force, Vice Admiral Kannan observed: “Today, and almost half a century later, and with more than 100-odd ships constructed in the country at its various shipyards, our capabilities have got significantly enhanced.”
Indirectly replying to other speakers, who spoke on lack of development in defence ship building, he remarked: “We are able to undertake most of the design in-house and meet the requirements of major equipment and machinery from our indigenous industries.”
We have more than 40 warships on order with various public and private shipyards and it has been our endeavor to progressively enhance their indigenous content, he added.

INDIGENOUS SHIPS

Speaking about the capabilities and reach of indigenousness in Indian Defence ship building, Vice Admiral Kannan pointed out: “A ship’s capability can be broadly seen as pertaining to its ability to float, move and fight.”
“Our aggregate indigenous content in the area of ‘Float’ has been an impressive 90 per cent, which is bound to increase further with most of the ship building steel requirements being manufactured in the country since mid 2005s. As regards the ‘Move’ category, the content has been a relatively low 60 per cent with many machinery and systems of the propulsion package still being imported. For the ‘Fight’ capability it is a significantly low 30 per cent as many of our sensors, weapon systems, torpedoes and missiles remain in the imported category.”

SKILL INTEGRATION

Pitching for a need for proper integration for sustained growth, Vice Admiral Kannan said: “Apart from indigenous manufacture of individual equipment and machinery, we also need to develop the skills to integrate them on the platform.”
“Today we are able to manufacture turbines, gear box and shafting systems in this country, but we do not have adequate domain knowledge to integrate them to the hull form selected for the ship,” he said.
Our expertise in hydrodynamics, design of propellers and propulsion system integration is presently limited and once we consolidate in this specialisation, I am sure that either the Government or the industry would find it necessary to create the infrastructure in the country to conduct model tests of platforms as well, so that we have the comprehensive capability of both design and testing, hoped the Vice Admiral.

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