Indian Navy Has 41 Ships, Submarines Under Construction: Navy Chief Dhowan

The Indian Navy has 41 ships and submarines under construction in Indian shipyards, the Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Robin K Dhowan said in Bangalore yesterday.

“The Navy’s blueprint revolves around the ‘Make in India’ concept. In fact, the country is not new to this as India’s first indigenous ship was built in 1941. The Navy, at present, has no foreign orders anywhere”, the Navy Chief said.

He was speaking at the second annual Admiral R L Pereira Memorial Lecture organised by The Navy Foundation (Bengaluru), along with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

The admiral said that the ships and were being manufactured in both government owned and privately owned Indian dockyards.

Among the ships under construction is the INS Vikrant aircraft carrier on which the naval LCA Tejas aircraft will be based. The naval LCA underwent its ski jump trials in Goa recently and is scheduled to be launched along with the carrier in 2018.

The Indian Navy is bolstering its naval aviation arm and has already based the MiG-29K fighters based on the INS Vikramaditya carrier.