KALININGRAD, November 9 (Itar-Tass) — The ceremony of the transfer to the Indian Navy of the Tarkash (Quiver) frigate will be held at the Baltic Shipyard Yantar in Kaliningrad on Friday, the plant’s press secretary Sergei Mikhailov told Itar-Tass.
“Built at the Yantar Shipyards the Tarkash frigate is the second of the three ships of Project 11356, created by Kaliningrad shipbuilders under another Russian-Indian contract,” Mikhailov said. He recalled that the first of this “troika” of frigates – the Teg (Sabre) was transferred by the enterprise to the Indian Navy on April 27.
Before the delver to the customer the Tarkash frigate underwent seat trials in the Baltic Sea, and the navy men of the Baltic Fleet helped their Indian counterparts to master the ship’s material part, its weapons and equipment.
“In the presence of the state commission of the customer all the ship’s systems and equipment, including weapons system of the frigate have been tested in the Baltic Sea,” Mikhailov said. “Then the final part of the acceptance tests was conducted in the water area of the Yantar Shipyard, which ended with the frigate’ control sailing at sea.”
Senior representatives of the Embassy of India in Moscow and the Joint Staff of the Indian Navy, as well as the leadership of the Russian United Shipbuilding Corporation, Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Rosoboronexport arms exporting company, representatives of the regional authorities, the Baltic Fleet command will attend the ceremony of the transfer of the Tarkash frigate to the Indian Navy.
The Yantar Shipyard currently continues the building of the third ship of the same project for the Indian Navy. The frigate named Trikand (Bow) will be delivered to the customer in 2013. At present the ship is undergoing mooring trials.
Ships of Project 11356, developed by the Northern Design Bureau, designed for combat in the ocean and sea are both independently and as escort within a naval force. Their combat capabilities allow them to search for and destroy enemy submarines, defend warships at sea against ships, aircraft and submarines, support ground forces’ combat action and make amphibious landing. The new frigates are equipped with naval strike missile systems with the Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles. All three are Krivak-IV class stealth guided missile frigates that are designed to avoid enemy radars and work on principles of reducing the ship’s signature. The ships are fitted with a mix of Indian, Russian and Western weaponry systems along with both air defence and anti-submarine warfare capabilities. They also carry two advanced helicopters. They are powered by gas and diesel turbines. These warships are capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots.
The Yantar Baltic Shipyard was founded on July 8, 1945. The company specialises in building small and medium vessels for military and civil purposes, as well as in ship repair operations. The enterprise has built over 67 years of work 155 warships and more than 500 civil vessels. The controlling stake in the OJSC Yantar Baltic Shipyard belongs to the state represented by the United Shipbuilding Corporation.