Russia Delays Advanced Talwar-Class Stealth Frigates' Delivery Yet Again; Now Projected To Join Navy By May And October 2024

In a negative affect of the Russia-Ukraine war on India, the delivery of two advanced stealth frigates for the Indian Navy, has been further delayed, reported The Hindu.

In 2016, the Indian Navy ordered four advanced Talwar-class frigates worth $1 billion.

Under the contract, two frigates were to be acquired off-the-shelf, and the other two were to be manufactured by Goa Shipyard Limited by 2026 and 2027.

These advanced Talwar-class stealth frigates are based on the Russian Krivak-III/IV class frigates or Project 11356. The frigates are known by the name 'Admiral Grigorovich' class in the Russian Naval Service.

The Indian Navy already operates six Talwar-class frigates, acquired in two batches of three each in 1997 and 2006. INS Talwar, the first frigate of the first batch, was commissioned in June 2003, and INS Trikand, the last frigate of the second batch, was commissioned in June 2013.

Initially, they were expected to be delivered in November 2023 and April 2024, but this has now been delayed by six months to May and October 2024.

Alexey Rakhmanov, director-general of the United Shipbuilding Corporation of Russia, stated, "The ship is in the final stages of development, it will go for sea trials in two months."

Explaining the cause of delay, the DG Rakhmanov said, "The supply of some equipment has seen delays and had to make sort of a round-the-globe trip to reach Russia."

Delays in payments due to western sanctions on the use of the global SWIFT interbank system have also caused delays, Rakhmanov further said.

It's worth noting that in August 2022, these frigates missed delivery by six months. This delay followed another nine-month delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In total, these frigates have experienced delays totaling just short of two years.

The first two frigates, INS Tushil and INS Tamala, were originally Russian Admiral Butakov and Admiral Istomin. The construction of these frigates was halted due to the 2014 Ukraine-Russia tensions in the Donbass region.

The Ukrainians reportedly halted the delivery of Zorya gas-turbine engines that power these frigates.

This prompted the Russians to resell these frigates to India in 2016. After taking delivery of these Zorya gas-turbines, India shipped them back to Russia for installation.

These stealth frigates have a maximum tonnage of 4,000 tonne and measure 124.8 metre in length.

These frigates are capable of firing eight advanced Club-S, Club-N, or Brahmos anti-ship and land-attack missiles using their vertical launching systems.

Additionally, these frigates are equipped with a 100-mm A-190E main gun, two twin-tube 533 mm anti-submarine torpedo tubes, and an advanced Shtil-1 air defence system.