News Story: Goa Shipyard nominated to build two stealth frigates for the Indian navy

Talwar class Frigate (Image: Wiki Commons)

By: Vivek Raghuvanshi

NEW DELHI - India's private shipyards are unhappy with a Ministry of Defense decision to nominate state-owned shipyard Goa Shipyard to build two  Russian Krivak-class stealth frigates over two private sector competitors, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Defence and Engineering. 

During  a meeting with Russian defense officials last week, MoD has cleared a $4.48 billion program to acquire four Krivak-class stealth frigates under which two will be built by Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation and the remaining two by Goa Shipyard, a senior MoD official said. 

“A formal contract is expected to be awarded within the next four months”, the official said, adding that USC will deliver the frigates in the next four years but Goa Shipyard will take eight years to deliver. 

“The private-sector shipyards have already brought it to the notice to MoD informally their unhappiness on giving GSL the contract to build the two Krivak class frigates on nomination basis,” an executive of the industry lobby group Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. 

"They (private shipyards) want greater orders to push the private sector," the FICCI executive noted. 

Anil Jai Singh, retired Indian Navy Commodore and defense analyst, said, "This decision (to nominate GSL for two Krivak class frigates) has indeed surprised me." 

GSL is a very capable yard but has never built anything of the size and sophistication of the Krivaks, Singh said. 

Read the full story at DefenseNews