Water Water Everywhere, Russian Boats To Float: India-Russia Strike A $950 Million Frigate Deal 

India and Russia signed a new contract for the procurement of two Admiral Grigorovich-class (Project 11356) guided-missile frigates earlier this month, as The Economic Times, has reported . This $950 million deal is expected to give the Indian Navy the necessary firepower to defend the Indian maritime borders.

Though the first two frigates will be bought in a ready-to-use condition from Russia, there is expected to be a follow-on contract to build two more of them in India. Sources told the newspaper that while final clearances for the long-pending project came before the summit earlier this month between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the deal was signed last week after price negotiations.

The 3,620-ton Admiral Grigorovich-class ships are an upgrade to the Talwar-class frigates that were supplied by Russia between 2003 and 2013. Among the different weapons systems that can be fitted into frigates, the ability to plug in the Brahmos Cruise Missiles is particularly interesting.

Brahmos, the world’s only supersonic cruise missile system is a product of a decades-long partnership between India and Russia. The project started in 1999, has come a long way. Though it is already available in land and sea variants, trials of the air launch version are already underway.