Article Posted on : - Nov 07, 2010

A file photo of Indian Coast Guard ships and helicopters.

NEW DELHI (PTI): To coach its officer cadets, the Indian Coast Guard is planning to buy a training ship, which can also be used in search and rescue operations at sea.

The Defence Ministry has issued a Request for Information (RFI) asking global and Indian ship builders to specify if they can deliver the training ship.

"The Defence Ministry intends to acquire one training ship for the Coast Guard. The primary role of the ship will be to provide basic sea training to Coast Guard officer cadets and secondary role is to carry out search and rescue operations," a Coast Guard officer said here.

In its secondary role, the ship will also be used to detect and prosecute hostile craft in area of operations.

The ship, with a 25-year life expectancy at 3,000 hours of sailing annually, will have a displacement of 3,500 tonne and it can touch speeds of 20 knots with a cruising speed of 15 knots on single shaft.

Its endurance will be about 5,000 nautical miles in cruising speed with a mission duration of 60 days with sea worthiness and survivability in all weather conditions.

The ship will have a complement of 281 personnel on board, with a modern navigation deck, a cadets' training deck being the main bridge and three 30-seater class rooms.

Apart from four-lane weapon training simulators, it will also have a pollution laboratory for testing water and oil samples, apart from capability to be replenished and refuelled at sea.

Among the weapon systems it will carry, include two each of 30/40 mm gun and 12.7mm heavy machine gun with optronic fire control system.

Along with life-saving equipment and appliances, it will carry two inflatable boats or Geminis, three rigid inflatable boats, two enterprise class boats and one 50-knot fast speed motor boat.

Its main propulsion system will comprise twin diesel engines, fire main and fire fighting system with sprinklers for magazine, helicopter hanger, helicopter deck and ship side.

Its helicopter deck vessel will be capable to operate integral helo with All-Up Weight (AUW) of 6.5 tonne and stage through helo up to AUW 10 tonne.

The ship will have a Nuclear-Biological-Chemical Defence headquarters and a Damage Control training headquarters on board.

It will be fitted with two operational radars, a training radar, two laser/fibre optic gyros with repeaters, echo sounder, electromagnetic log, magnetic compass, differential global positioning system, auto pilot, integrated bridge system and automatic identification system.