News Story: India mine-sweeper program hits another roadblock

By: Vivek Raghuvanshi

NEW DELHI ― Goa Shipyard Limited’s quest to build 12 high-tech mine countermeasure vessels for $5 billion, which is already delayed, has hit a roadblock over the selection of propulsion engines.

According to a source in India’s Ministry of Defence, the Navy supports a multi-vendor tender process for the engine selection, but Goa Shipyard, citing reservations from Kangnam Corporation of South Korea, prefers a single-vendor nomination of German MTU engines.

Goa Shipyard of India, which is state-owned, was nominated by the MoD to make 12 MCMVs for the Indian Navy. Kangnam was selected to provide the technology needed to build the vessels because India does not possess the required technology.

The Kangam-built MCMVs for the South Korean Navy are fitted with German MTU engines, and the company is offering the same to India. However, the Indian Navy is skeptical about the suitability of German MTU engines for Indian MCMVs because of the differences in geographical location and areas of operation.

India’s coastline is about 7,500 kilometers ― larger than that of South Korea.

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News Report: India Left With Four Minesweepers Against Chinese Subs, Experts Fear for Safety

With just four minesweepers out of the 24 required to secure its region from minefields, the Indian Navy is in dire straits with the existing four also due to be decommissioned next year without any news of any induction of new minesweepers.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — The Navy recently decommissioned two minesweepers ships, INS Karwar and INS Kakinada. It has left for only four minesweepers against the requirement of at least 24 minesweepers to secure its region from minefields.

The Navy expressed its concern to the Ministry of Defense on this issue during the four-day long Naval Commanders' Conference which ended concluded on May 5, wherein the "top-level leadership of the Navy reviewed readiness to deploy over the entire range of missions in the maritime domain".

By the end of next year, the Indian Navy would have decommissioned all its existing minesweepers, without new inductions.

News Story: India, South Korea sign agreement to build warships

By: Vivek Raghuvanshi

NEW DELHI — India and South Korea inked a memorandum of understanding on Friday in India to cooperate in shipbuilding for military use. 

The memorandum was signed by both India's secretary of defence production, Ashok Kumar Gupta, and South Korean Minister of Defense Acquisition Program Administration Chang Myoung-jin in India "for Defence Industry Co-operation in Shipbuilding," according to an Indian Ministry of Defence news release.

India has chosen state-owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited, or HSL, to cooperate with a shipyard nominated by South Korea. 

"The Inter-Governmental MoU, was conceived under the overall umbrella of the 'Special Strategic Partnership' between both sides as declared in the Joint Statement of the Prime Minister of India and the President of [South Korea] in May 2015," the MoD release said. 

An MoD official explained that the cooperation is part of the Make in India policy, under which warships will be built at domestic shipyards with South Korea's help.

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News Report: Indian Navy Can Be a Sitting Duck For Mines From Next Year

Indian Navy needs at least 24 mine counter-measure vehicles to plug the shortfall. China has more than 100 such minesweepers and mine counter-measure vehicles.

New Delhi (Sputnik) – The inordinate delay in procurement will leave the Indian Navy, the world’s fifth largest, without minesweepers which are essential for ships to detect, track and destroy mines laid by enemy forces to choke harbors and spread mayhem. This startling revelation came to light when the Indian government accepted before a parliamentary committee that all six mine counter-measure vehicles (MCMVs) currently operational in the Navy will be retired by 2018.

India had bought six MCMVs from the erstwhile Soviet Union in the 1970s. Last year, the Indian government agreed to build 12 new MCMVs with the South Korean collaboration at Goa Shipyard.

News Story: Kangnam Selected by India To Build Minesweepers

Vivek Raghuvanshi

GOA, India — South Korea's Kangnam Corporation has emerged as a sole bidder to respond to a global expression of interest (EOI) floated by India's state-owned Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) last year to jointly build 12 mine countermeasure vessels (MCMV).

A source with GSL described the response and said the joint effort would cost the Indian Navy $5 billion.

Since Kangnam is the sole respondent to the EOI, leading to a single vendor situation, GSL had sought special permission from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last month to go ahead with selecting the South Korean company as its technology transfer partner.

Last week, the MoD accepted the GSL's proposal, paving the way for inking the contract with Kangnam, a GSL source said.

Kangnam will transfer technology and help in the production of the MCMVs. However, no details of the business arrangement between the South Korean company and GSL is known.

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