Yantar Shipyard to Start Building New Frigates for India in 2012

21.05.2012 JSC Yantar Shipyard will start construction of new lot of frigates for Indian Navy in 2012, reports RIA Novosti referring to the yard's acting director Alexander Konovalov.

According to him, "we're preparing for construction of the second three frigates for Indian Navy this year; the ships will be identical to the first trio", reports the news agency.

The contract for three Project 1135.6 frigates (INS Teg, INS Tarkash, and INS Trikand) was signed on July 14, 2007 in Delhi. Overall value of the contract was $1.56 bln. JSC Yantar was appointed major executor. The contract provided an option for additional construction of 1-3 frigates.

Yantar handed over the first Project 1135.6 frigate INS Teg to Indian Navy late Apr 2012.

As for Konovalov, "the second ship will take sea for trials next week and be delivered to the client this year. Delivery of the third frigate is scheduled in 2013", reports RIA Novosti.

After implementation of that contract, Indian Navy will operate six Project 1135.6 frigates. First three frigates of that kind were built for India by Baltiysky Zavod shipyard and handed over to the customer in 2003-2004 under the $1-bln contract signed in 1997.

It should be noted that so far there has not been officially announced about construction of the new three frigates for India. Negotiations on this matter are going on for a long time. Estimated cost of the three-ship lot is $1.7 bln.

Normally, it comes out well in advance about planned large contracts, especially with India. Such contracts pass multi-staged approval procedure, and Indian media cover them quite particularly.

As was earlier reported, new contract with Indian Navy would be negotiated in case of successful delivery of the second three frigates. However, deadlines were postponed for more than a year.