Article Posted on : - Sep 02, 2011

INS Teg. A file photo

MOSCOW (PTI): Russia has commenced sea trials of the India Navy’s first of the three advanced stealth frigates in the Baltic Sea which will be delivered by early next year.

INS ‘Teg’, the Project 11356 class frigate, also known as Talwar Class, is first of the three guided missile frigates ordered by the Indian Navy in 2006 under a USD 1.5 billion deal with Russia.

India Navy already operates three such class of stealth frigates and had ordered three more to bolster its fleet.

The two other warships of the same class – INS ‘Tarkash’ (Quiver) and INS ‘Trikand’ (Bow) – are at various stages of construction at the Yantar naval shipyard in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.

The Teg is expected to be delivered to the Indian Navy in the beginning of 2012 to be followed by the Tarkash in the same year and finally the ‘Trikand’ in 2013, according to Yantar shipbuilder.

Initially, Russia was to deliver the three frigates by the end of this year, but due to lack of qualified workforce and problem of networking with sub-vendors the deliveries were delayed.

Earlier in the last decade, Russia’s another Baltiisky Zavod shipyard in St Petersburg had built first three of the stealth frigates – INS Talwar, INS Trishul and INS Tabar.

The new frigates will be armed with the deadly BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missiles, capable of destroying enemy ships and land targets.