Plan for bigger, heavier, stealthy next-generation destroyers gets defence council’s approval

NEW DELHI: The long-pending next-generation destroyer programme has received a formal push with the Rajnath Singh-led Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) giving its in-principle approval to the futuristic warships under Project 18A on Monday under the “naval platforms” category.The proposed stealth guided-missile destroyers, to be designed by Warship Design Bureau, will be bigger, heavier and equipped with advanced weapons and technologies and part of future frontline surface combatants of the Indian Navy. The project may cost upwards of Rs 75,000 crore and the delivery is likely to start 5-10 years after the contract is signed. “The futuristic destroyers will have displacement upwards of 10,000 tonnes, making them significantly larger than the Visakhapatnam-class destroyers (7,400 tonnes),” a source told TOI. “These warships will have more firepower, more sensors, advanced technologies and systems,” the source said. A competitive bidding will happen in the near future for the building of these next-generation destroyers.Indian Navy currently operates around 12-13 relatively new guided-missile destroyers that serve as the backbone of its surface combat fleet, providing multi-domain capabilities in air defence, anti-surface warfare, and anti-submarine operations. There are four destroyers — INS Visakhapatnam, INS Mormugao, INS Imphal, INS Surat — under Visakhapatnam-Class (Project 15B); three destroyers like INS Kolkata, INS Kochi, INS Chennai under Kolkata-Class (Project 15A); three destroyers (INS Delhi, INS Mysore, INS Mumbai) under Delhi-Class (Project 15); and some Soviet-built destroyers (Rajput-Class (Kashin-II/Project 61-ME) that are being phased out.An active Indian Navy destroyer is currently equipped with a comprehensive suite of anti-surface, anti-air, and anti-submarine weapons: each has around 16 BrahMos cruise missiles; 32 medium-to-long-range surface-to-air missiles stored in vertical launching systems; one 76 mm OTO Melara naval gun mounted forward of the bridge; four AK-630 30 mm Gatling guns for point defence against incoming missiles and aircraft, twin 21-inch torpedo tubes capable of firing heavy-weight torpedoes and two RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers. The futuristic destroyers will have much more than these lethal weapons.As per the defence ministry’s Monday statement, 82% of the overall DAC-cleared defence proposals are earmarked for the domestic defence industry under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat framework. So, the futuristic destroyers are likely to have more indigenous content, thus reducing dependence on imports.