• Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd delivered an advanced guided-missile frigate ‘Himgiri’ to the Indian Navy on July 31.

• Himgiri is first in a series of three such platforms being built by GRSE under the Navy’s Project 17A.

• Himgiri is a reincarnation of the erstwhile INS Himgiri, a Leander-class frigate, that was decommissioned on May 6, 2005.

Project 17A frigates

• Project 17A frigates are a follow-on class of the P17 (Shivalik Class) frigates with improved stealth features, advanced weapons and sensors and platform management systems.

• The Navy had placed orders for seven stealth frigates, four of which are being developed by Mazagon Dock Ltd (MDL) and three by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE).

• P17A ships have been designed in-house by Navy’s Warship Design Bureau. Around 75 per cent of the orders for equipment and system of P17A ships are being placed on indigenous firms.

• The first ship of Project 17A, ‘Nilgiri’ built by MDL, was launched on September 28, 2019. 

• ‘Himgiri’, built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), Kolkata was launched on December 14, 2020.

• The third ship ‘Udaygiri’ under the project was launched on May 17 this year. It is expected to start sea trials during the second half of 2024. 

• ‘Dunagiri’, the fourth ship of P17A frigates, was launched in July this year. It was named after a mountain range in Uttarakhand.

• ‘Taragiri’, named after a hill range in the Himalayas located at Garhwal, was the fifth ship of Project 17A frigates. It was launched in September 2022.

• ‘Vindhyagiri’, named after the mountain range in Karnataka, was the sixth ship of Project 17A frigates. It was launched in August.

• ‘Mahendragiri’ is the last of the seven warships under Project 17A.

• The state-of-the-art ship will be fitted with the latest gadgets and undergo extensive trials before being handed over to the Indian Navy for commissioning into service.

• P17A ships are guided missile frigates, each of which is 149 metres long, with the displacement of approximately 6,670 tonnes and a speed of 28 knots. 

• These are capable of neutralising threats in all dimensions of air, surface and sub-surface.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)