Indian navy inducts two new indigenous warships

Indian navy added two new warships to its fleet. The Water Jet Fast Attack Crafts (WJFAC) INS Cinque and INS Chariyam were launched by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) at the Khidderpore docks here.

Kolkata, July 17 : Indian navy added two new warships to its fleet. The Water Jet Fast Attack Crafts (WJFAC) INS Cinque and INS Chariyam were launched by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) at the Khidderpore docks here.

The warships are the first part of the 10-ship series, each costing 500 million rupees, to be delivered to the Navy by October 2010.

INS Cinque - named after a pristine Island sanctuary in the Andamans and INS Chariyam - named after an Islet in Lakshadweep, are an improved version of the Fast Attack Crafts with a speed in excess of 35 knots, designed in-house by GRSE.

According to Vice Admiral B S Randhawa, India's vast coastline an island territories demand extensive patrolling and monitoring and WJFAC were the best suited for the purpose.

"They have very high speed and long endurance. These ships are extremely useful for patrolling especially in coastal waters in the island territory of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep. As well as in areas like the sea-lanes between India and Sri Lanka," he said.

The ships will be fitted with CRN-91 Gun along with sensors.

The first two ships in this series, INS car Nicobar and INS Chetlat, which were launched in November' 2007, are at the fitting-out stage and are scheduled to be commissioned in the navy from November' 2008.

ANI