Kolkata, July 17 (ANI): Indian navy added two new warships to its fleet. The Water Jet Fast Attack Crafts (WJFAC) INS Cinque and INS Chariyam were launched by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) at the Khidderpore docks here.

The warships are the first part of the 10-ship series, each costing 500 million rupees, to be delivered to the Navy by October 2010.

INS Cinque - named after a pristine Island sanctuary in the Andamans and INS Chariyam - named after an Islet in Lakshadweep, are an improved version of the Fast Attack Crafts with a speed in excess of 35 knots, designed in-house by GRSE.

According to Vice Admiral B S Randhawa, India's vast coastline an island territories demand extensive patrolling and monitoring and WJFAC were the best suited for the purpose.

"They have very high speed and long endurance. These ships are extremely useful for patrolling especially in coastal waters in the island territory of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep. As well as in areas like the sea-lanes between India and Sri Lanka," he said.

The ships will be fitted with CRN-91 Gun along with sensors.

The first two ships in this series, INS car Nicobar and INS Chetlat, which were launched in November' 2007, are at the fitting-out stage and are scheduled to be commissioned in the navy from November' 2008.

DRDO develops marine gas turbine engine for Indian Navy

By Praful Kumar Singh
New Delhi, July 17 (ANI): The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a 12 MW marine gas turbine for the Indian Navy, which will be used to propel the SNF (Rajput) class of ships.

The engine will make India self-reliant in this critical technology of gas turbines for ship propulsion because all the naval ships run on this technology.

India has also joined the elite club of marine gas turbine designers like USA, Russia, UK and Ukraine.

The Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), Bangalore, a subsidiary of DRDO, has indigenously developed the turbine by spinning off the Kaveri engine, which is used for propelling the Indian Light Combat Aircraft (Tejas). 

Using the core of the Kaveri engine, the scientists of GTRE have added low-pressure compressor and turbine as a gas generator and designed a free power turbine to generate shaft power for the maritime application. 

The Kaveri Marine Gas Turbine (KMGT) as it has been named has been installed on to the Marine Gas Turbine test bed, which is an Indian Navy Facility at Vishakapatnam.

The engine has been tested to its potential of 12 MW at ISA SL 35°C condition, which is the requirement of Indian Navy for propelling the SNF (Rajput) class of ships. 

The Naval Dock Yard is capable of testing the gas turbines upto 25 MW of shaft power through a reduction gearbox and a water brake dynamometer.

The involvement of Indian Navy in the development of the engine including their participation during testing has given a tremendous push to the success achieved so far. (ANI)