Indian Navy's Advanced Ocean Surveillance Ship To Be Delivered In 2018

The Indian Navy is expected to receive the missile-range instrumentation ship, India's most advanced and largest ocean surveillance vessel that can track ballistic missiles, in 2018.

A naval vessel known only by its mysterious yard designation at Visakhapatnam, VC 11184 -- is being built by Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL) at a cost of INR 725 crore (US$111m) under a classified project which began four years ago.

According to Times of India, the project is in trial phase and the warship will be handed over to Navy in a few months.

A highly-placed source in HSL was quoted as saying: "We bagged the prestigious project three years ago and began construction at our ship-building yard. The ship is almost ready and once the trials get over, it will be officially handed to the Navy in 2018. Secrecy has been maintained on the project which is being monitored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Office".

According to the report, the vessel will be deployed for supporting India's strategic weapons programme. The vessel would have a special team on board from the technical intelligence bureau (National Technical Research Organisation), which directly reports to National Security Advisor's office.

VC 11184 is nearly 175 metres in length and will have Displacement of 10,000 tonnes and has a similar dimension in comparison to INS Jalashwa amphibious transport dock operated by Indian Navy.