Project 17A of Indian Navy

In news 

Himgiri’, the first of the three Project 17A ships being built at M/s Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), Kolkata was launched on 14 December 2020

About Project 17A  

• The Nilgiri-class frigate or Project 17A is a follow-on of the Project 17 Shivalik-class frigate for the Indian Navy. 
• The frigates are built with extensive use of low-observability technologies, including new radar-absorbing coatings, composite materials and “faceted” shape superstructures.
• The ship will be fitted with a 127mm main gun, two 30 mm AK-630M anti-aircraft artillery systems, two torpedo tubes, launchers for eight BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and 32 Barak-8 surface to air missiles. Its main radar will be the MF-STAR by IAI.
• Under the Project 17A program, a total of seven ships, four at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) and three ships at GRSE are being built with enhanced stealth features, advanced indigenous weapon and sensor fit along with several other improvements
• P17A ships have been indigenously designed by Directorate of Naval Design (Surface Ship Design Group) – DND(SSG), and are being built at indigenous yards namely MDL and GRSE
• Project 17A ships are sourcing 80% of the material/ equipment required for the project from indigenous vendors and with employment generation for over 2000 Indian firms and MSMEs within the country. 

About Himgiri

• The ship has taken its name and crest of the second Frigate of the Leander Class of ships, which incidentally was launched 50 years ago in 1970.
• Himgiri was commissioned into the Navy on 23 November 1974. She was decommissioned on 6 May 2005.
• INS Himgiri holds the record for the number of days at sea in a single deployment for a conventional ship of the Indian Navy
• A new ship with this name belonging to the new Nilgiri class was launched in December 2020

The Shivalik class or Project 17 

• Project 17 class is a class of multi-role frigates in service with the Indian Navy. They are the first stealth warships built in India. 
• They were designed to have better stealth features and land-attack capabilities than the preceding Talwar-class frigates. 
• A total of three ships were built between 2000 and 2010, and all three were in commission by 2012
• The Shivalik class, along with the seven Project 17A frigates currently being developed from them, are projected to be the principal frigates of the Indian Navy in the first half of the 21st century.