Article Posted on : - Jun 24, 2010

A File Photo.

MOSCOW (BNS): Russia on Wednesday floated out the second of three frigates being built for Indian Navy.

According to a news report by RIA Novosti, the ceremony for the INS Tarkash in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad was attended by senior Russian and Indian military and civilian officials.

Tarkash (meaning Quiver), is the fifth guided missile frigate under the Talwar class of the Indian Navy, is expected to be ready for commissioning in the later part of next year.

The ship will be installed with BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missiles.

India placed orders for the Talwar class of frigates with the Yantar shipyard (Kaliningrad) in Russia for construction of three of them of Krivak III class for its navy in 1997.

The three ships were delivered to India in 2003 and 2004. They were named Talwar (Sword), Tabar (Axe) and Trishul (Trident).

In 2006, a follow-on order was placed for three more frigates of the class with better design with stealth features, weapons and sensors with Russia's Yantar shipyard.

The first of the follow-on ship was launched a few months ago and integration of equipment on board the vessel is currently in progress at the shipyard. This ship, named INS Teg (Sabre), would be delivered to the navy early next year, the officer said.

Tarkash is the second in line among the follow-on frigates and Trikand (Bow) is the third.

The news report also said that these frigates will be equipped with a 100-mm gun, a Shtil surface-to-air missile system, two Kashtan air-defence gun/missile systems, two twin 533-mm torpedo launchers, and an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter.

With a displacement of 4,000 tons and speeds of 30 knots, these frigates are capable of accomplishing a wide scale of missions, primarily finding and eliminating enemy submarines and large surface ships.