How India Got The Warships That Russia Was Building For Its Navy

On Tuesday (20 November), India and Russia signed a $500 million deal for the construction of two stealth frigates at the Goa Shipyard. A nearly $1 billion deal to import two other such frigates, which have been built in Russia, was inked in October this year. These deals, signed at an interval of nearly four weeks, are part of an inter-governmental agreement that New Delhi reached with Moscow in 2016 for the procurement of four Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates.

Three Grigorovich-class frigates (Project 11356) are already in service with Russia’s Black Sea fleet. The Russian Ministry of Defence had signed two contracts between 2010 and 2011 for the construction of six Project 11356 frigates. The keel of the first ship in the series, Admiral Grigorovich, was laid down in December 2010 and the vessel was floated out of dry-dock in March 2014. Two more ships of the remaining five were launched by 2015. The other three, however, remain dry the Yantar Shipyard in Russia’s Kaliningrad.

Why? The lack of a propulsion system.

The Grigorovich-class frigates, among other surface vessels of the Russian Navy, are powered by M90FR (or M7N.1E) gas turbines. These are built by Zorya-Mashproekt, which was the Soviet Union’s main complex for gas turbine production, established during the second World War. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, this part of the defence industry complex went to Ukraine.

Russia’s relations with Ukraine deteriorated after the start of a political crisis in the country in 2013, which culminated in Moscow’s annexation of Kiev’s autonomous region of Crimea 2014. Soon after, Ukraine banned the supply of the engines to Russia, along with other equipment and spare parts.

Before the ban kicked in, Russia had managed acquired only three M90FR gas turbines from Ukraine. These have been installed on the first three Grigorovich-class ships. The other three, which were being built when the crisis began, could not be equipped with the gas turbines and remained in dry-dock.

This is when India comes into the picture. As Ukraine agreed to provide India M90FR gas turbines in form of “12 spare tool and accessory kits” in 2016, India decided to procure two of the three incomplete Grigorovich-class frigates (the hulls of the vessels have been fabricated at the Yantar Shipyard).

India has bought engines from Ukraine in the past as well. According to Ukraine's state-owned arms export agency Ukroboronprom, “30 ships of Indian Navy are equipped with engines, produced by Zorya-Mashproekt”.

It had been reported, as late as April 2018, that Moscow is developing a gas turbine system of its own to use it on the incomplete vessels and will supply India newly-built frigates. But no confirmation on this has emerged. Moscow is said to have awarded a contract to NPO Saturn, a Russian aircraft engine maker, to develop a new propulsion system. However, reports on the India-Russia deal continue to point that the incomplete ships will be supplied to India.

New Delhi’s decision to go ahead with the purchase of these ships from Russia makes sense because the Indian Navy currently operates six Talwar-class frigates that Russia built in two batches between 2003 and 2013. The 3,620-ton Admiral Grigorovich-class is an upgraded variant of the Talwar-class. With the addition of the four Grigorovich-class ships, India will have 10 frigates derived from the Krivak-class. Additionally, these four ships will be delivered to the Indian Navy between 2022 and 2027, at around the same time as the arrival of seven P17A frigates from the Mazagon Dockyard and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, expected to be delivered between 2022 and 2025.

If the builders of these vessels stick to the timeline, the Indian Navy will have 11 new frigates in its fleet in a relatively short period of time.