Indian Military

Type 15A (Project 15A) Kolkata class guided missile destroyers are the latest stealth destroyers with land attack capability being built for the Indian Navy. The first vessel is expected to join the fleet in 2010, followed by the second vessel in 2011 and the third vessel in May 2012.

---

Development

The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) approved construction of three more frigates as the follow on of Project 15 frigates in 1986. The Ministry sanctioned in March 1986 the construction of three frigates at a cost of Rs 360 crore at MDL. The construction of these frigates had not been initially taken up so the Navy redesigned them to make them with modem warfare capabilities. In May 2000, the government approved construction of three units of the Project 15A Bangalore Class destroyer. To be built to a modified design, construction of the P-15A 'Bangalore' Class ships could begin at MDL in 2002. Tentative delivery of the first unit was to be five years later, and the other two at 18 month intervals thereafter.

The Bangalore class used the same hull as the Delhi class, with major differences - including the weapon systems. The P15A ships were initially planned to possess enhanced stealth features and land-attack capabilities in the form of Russian-built Novator 3M54E1 'Klub' vertically launched cruise missiles. The Delhi class employed the Russian Kashmir SA-7 surface-to-air missile system and the KH-35 Uran surface-to-surface missile. The Bangalore class would employ the Israeli Barak-1 for its surface-to-air missile system and the Indian-developed BrahMos for its surface attack requirement.

The Project-15A Kolkata class [not Bangalore] ships are follow-on ships of the Project-15 destroyers, namely ships, Delhi, Mysore and Mumbai - the front line combatants of Indian Navy. The P15A destroyer possess enhanced stealth features and land-attack capabilities and add a new dimension in naval warfare for the Indian Navy. 'Kolkata' has a length of 163 meters, beam of 17.4 meters and displacement of 6,800 tons and carry two helicopters on board. Propelled by four gas turbines, the indigenously designed ship will have modern weapons and sensors, advanced action information system, total atmospheric control system and a host of other advanced features. The BrahMos cruise missile will equip all major Indian naval warships like the three under-construction Project 15A destroyers and Project 17 frigates and will be retrofitted on one existing warship each year.

The 6800t Kolkata class (Project 15A) destroyers are a state of the art follow-on of the Delhi class destroyers. The Delhi Class has acquired an almost iconic status, being one of the finest in their category. The follow-on series is more or less similar having the same propulsion with minor improvements. There will be some changes in the weapon systems, which will be mostly of Indian origin. Basically an incremental improvement on the Delhis by adding Brahmos. The design of the DDG includes a 16-cell BrahMos UVLM along with a 32-cell UVLM for the Barak-2 below the bridge, and another 32-cell UVLM for the Barak-2 aft of the helicopter deck, along with the mast-mounted EL/M-2248 MF-STAR radar.

Although conceived as follow-on to the earlier Delhi class, Project 15A ships, and the Shivaliks as well, will be technologically far superior, with major advances in weapons and sensors. More of these systems are now produced indigenously, but their delivery occasionally takes time, upsetting commissioning schedules. Overseas suppliers are not always prompt either. The Indian systems include the HUMSA-NG (Hull Mounted Sonar Array – new generation) and the Nagin active towed array sonar, jointly developed by the DRDO’s Naval Science and Technology Laboratory (NSTL) in Visakhapatnam and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) in Bangalore.

India produces torpedo mounts and heavy and lightweight electrically propelled torpedoes too, as also complete electronic systems and anti-ship warfare (ASW) rocket launchers. The country is also jointly producing with Russia the PJ-10 BrahMos. This supersonic anti-ship cruise missile is now fitted on all major naval platforms as it has become the Indian Navy’s standard strike weapon. There have been times the BrahMos has needed to be retrofitted on ships after they have been launched, derailing commissioning schedules even further.

The Project 15-A is about 90 percent indigenous by cost. And the design itself is 100 per cent Indian. The three Project 15-A Kolkata-class destroyers will each cost the navy Rs 3,800 crore (US $950 million), including the cost of long-term spare parts. Three 6,250-ton destroyers, fitted with the Aegis radar and fire control system, will set Australia back by Rs 32,000 crore (US $8 billion). At about Rs 11,000 crore per destroyer, that is almost three times the cost India is paying for its Kolkata-class destroyers.

In September 2003 construction commenced on Project 15A, the Kolkata Class ships, the first of which was scheduled to enter service in 2010. By 2005 Mazagaon Dock Ltd [MDL] had started work on two Bangalore class destroyers and the work on third such ship was to begin in 2005. The first unit of the Bangalore class could be commissioned as early as 2008 if the funding stream continued unabated. Project-15A experienced delays. The lead ship, Kolkata was launched in March 2006, with the commissioning scheduled for 2010. By 2007 Project-15A was going slow due to delay in finalisation of design data and Russian weapons and sensor systems to be used on board. Russia was also late in supplying equipment like shafting and propellers. Moreover, extensive design and production rework had to be done due to a large number of changes made after production work had commenced. 'Kolkata' is the first of three ships in the class under construction at Mazagon dock and is scheduled to join the Navy in 2010. The second and third ships will follow in 2011 and 2012, respectively. The first missile destroyer of Project-15A - 'Kolkata' was launched at Mazagon dock 30 March 2006. The ship was formally launched by Mrs Roopa Byce, wife of Vice Admiral Sangram Singh Byce, Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Naval Command. Chief of the Army Staff General J J Singh and a number of senior Army and Naval officers were present on the occasion.

The subsequent two sister ships were yet to be named as of early 2008. While the keel of the second was laid in October 2005 and its launch due to take place in April 2008, the lack of berthing space has delayed it to sometime in 2009, with commissioning beyond 2011. The keel of the third was yet to be laid as of early 2008, though its launch and commissioning had been unrealistically announced for 2011 and 2012.

By early 2009 INS Kolkata, the first destroyer of Project 15-A, was being kitted out for its commissioning in 2010. MDL was fighting to deliver this Rs 11,000 crore project on time. Default by a Ukrainian shipyard in delivering the propellers that drive these warships and the shafting that delivers power from the engines to the propellers was holding back completion. The first Kolkata class destroyer was to be delivered in May 2010. The next two are scheduled for delivery at one year intervals, i.e. May 2011 and May 2012, respectively.

Russia is assisting Project 15-A not only with shafting and propellers, but also the know-how for pontoon-assisted launches. Conventionally, a ship is “launched” into water once its hull is completed, after which the superstructure — the upper decks and masts that together weigh several thousand tonne — is fitted on in deeper water. The shallow water near the slipways, where warships are built, cannot accommodate fully built warships, which require a deeper draught.

 

The INS Kolkata, for example, was under 3,000 tonnes when it was launched into water just 4.5 metres deep. But the next two Project 15-A vessels will weigh over 4,000 tonnes at launch because they will have pontoons — steel compartments welded outside the deck — that will lift the ship in the water like inflatable armbands do to swimmers. The pontoons are removed once the ship reaches deeper water.

Russia has also provided the warship-grade steel for Project 15-A. Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) now makes warship-grade steel, but the manufacture of these destroyers began before SAIL production ramped up. SAIL’s current production is barely enough for the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) being constructed at Cochin Shipyard Ltd, Kochi.

 

---

Progress

The progress of fabricating the three Project 15A Kolkata-class guided-missile destroyers (DDG), being built at a cost of Rs84.59 billion by the Indian Ministry of Defence-owned Mazagon Docks Ltd (MDL), has been as slow as that of the earlier three Project 15 Delhi-class DDGs. Though approved in 2000, the first of these 6,800-tonne DDGs (see photo 4) will be ready only by 2012. All this will further delay the Indian Navy’s (IN) plan to order three more DDGs under Project 15B (which is now on the Directorate of Naval Design Bureau’s drawing boards) as well as seven new FFGs under Project 17A. Work on Project 15A was slowed primarily due to delays in finalisation of design data and Russian weapons and sensor systems to be used on board. Russia’s Baltisky Zavod Shipyard was also late in supplying equipment like shafting and propellers (costing $20 million for each DDG). The first shipment took place in late 2005, the second will follow in 2009 and the third in 2010. Moreover, extensive design and production rework has had to be done due to a large number of design changes made after production work had commenced. It usually takes six months to acquire long-lead items like cabling consignments, and two years to take delivery of the shafting and propellers of a warship. The time for warship-building is also dictated by the availability of diesel engines. Currently, there is such a tremendous demand for such engines that Wartsila, SEMT Pielstick, Caterpillar, MTU and MAN, the major producers of diesel engines, are fully booked till 2013. Each of the three Project 15A DDGs will be powered by a COGAG propulsion system comprising twin Ukrainian Zorya Production Association-built M36E gas turbine plants that produce more than 64,000hp. The M36E marine industrial gas turbine plant comprises four DT-59 reversible gas turbines grouped in two pairs, driving two propellers through two RG-54 gearboxes. There are four separate Russia-made gas turbine generators, two in each engine room, that drive two controllable pitch propellers through twin gearboxes. Also to be installed are twin Bergen/Garden Reach Shipbuilding & Engineering-built KVM-diesel engines each rated at 9,900hp. On-board power generation will come from four 1mWe Wartsila WCM-1000 generator sets driving Cummins KTA50G3 engines and Kirloskar 1MV AC generators. Each Project 15A DDG has a length of 163 metres and a width of 17.4 metres. Plate-cutting for the lead vessel, INS Kolkata, began on March 12, 2003 and the hull was launched on March 30, 2005. The weapons package will include twin 24-cell launchers carrying 48 Barak-2 vertically-launched 70km-range surface-to-air missiles, twin 16-cell launchers carrying 32 Barak-1 anti-missile missiles, 16 BrahMos vertically-launched MRCMs housed within a VLS cell built by Larsen & Toubro, and one Arsenal A-190E 100mm main gun. Principal on-board sensors will include the DRDO-developed and BEL-built Humsa-NG hull-mounted panoramic sonar and a yet-to-be-selected low-frequency active towed array sonar (with the EDO-built ALOFTS, THALES’ Captas-Nano, ATLAS Elektronik’s ACTAS and L-3 Ocean Systems’ LFTAS being on offer). Also to be fitted on board each of the three DDGs will be one S-band ELTA EL/M-2248 MF-STAR active phased-array multi-purpose radar and one EL/M-2238 L-band STAR low-level medium-range surveillance radar. The offboard countermeasures dispensing systems will be ELBIT Systems’ Deseaver (same as that on board the IN’s three existing Project 16A Brahmaputra-class DDGs). The integrated platform management system (IPMS) will be supplied by Canada-based L-3 MAPPS, while the MoD-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) will supply the Electronic Modular Command & Control Applications (EMCCA Mk4) combat management system, CCS Mk4 composite communications system and an ATM-based broadband integrated shipborne data network. INS Kolkata is expected to be commissioned in 2010, followed by its two sister vessels in 2011 and 2012.
Another significant addition to the IN fleet of principal surface combatants in future will be the three follow-on Project 1135.6 guided-missile frigates (FFG) that are now being fitted out at Russia’s Kaliningrad-based Yantar Shipyard JSC. Each such FFG will be armed with eight vertically launched BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles (photo 5). The photos above (1 & 2) also detail the combat management system of the Project 1135.6 FFG

 

---

Project Schedule

Name	Laid down	Launched	Commissioning
INS Kolkata	27 September 2003	30 March 2006	May 2010
INS Chennai	25 October 2005		May 2011
INS Bengaluru	21 February 2006		May 2012
INS Kochi	25 October 2005	18 September 2009	May 2013

The first Kolkata class destroyer is to be delivered in May 2010. The next two are scheduled for delivery at one year intervals, i.e. May 2011 and May 2012, respectively.

 

---

Specifications