Marking an additional boost to the Indian Navy in its long-held ambition to possess modern world-class guided-missile frigates, India launched a second boat in P17A Nilgiri stealth warship on Monday in the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) shipyard in Kolkata.
Named “INS Himgiri,” the ship was laid down on November 10, 2018, in the GRSE shipyard and the hull was launched this Monday on schedule. The vessel is set to be commissioned in 2023 after an extensive buildup of onboard systems and a series of trials. It is also the first major offensive ship to be made by GRSE, enhancing the diverse shipyard’s warship building capability and slowly reducing the workload of Mazgaon Dock Limited (MDL) while distributing critical warship construction projects to other capable shipyards present on India’s massive coast.
INS Himgiri was launched during a ceremony held in the GRSE facility in presence of the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) of Indian Armed Forces, General Bipin Rawat. Through following the tradition of ship launching in India, the ship was launched by Madhulika Rawat, wife of General Rawat in GRSE on the banks of River Hooghly. The ship was sailed to the launching ceremony in full honor with all necessary rituals, honoring Indian Navy tradition during displays of the superstructure.
Second in line with Nilgiri class, INS Himgiri is a follow-up of the INS Nilgiri stealth guided missile frigate, which is being built by India’s premier shipbuilding giant MDL at Mumbai. INS Nilgiri was launched on September 28, 2019, and is currently in its final phase of construction before starting extensive sea trials and inducting into service by 2022. The third ship in its class will be launched in 2021 in MDL. A total of seven ships are planned to be built under the Project 17A stealth frigate development program by the Indian navy.
