INS Amini at GRSE in Kolkata on Thursday

16 ships are being built for the Navy - 8 by GRSE and 8 by another PSU shipyard

Kolkata: Defence PSU, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), on Thursday launched INS Amini, the fourth of the eight Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts (ASW SWC) it is building for the Indian Navy.

Named after an oval-shaped island in the Lakshadweep archipelago, INS Amini is the reincarnation of another warship with the same identity that had joined the Navy on December 12 in 1974.

It was an anti-submarine corvette, built at a shipyard in the erstwhile Soviet Union and participated in several operations before being decommissioned on September 16 in 2002.

The ASW SWCs are equipped with advanced sonar and armed with latest weaponry such as lightweight torpedoes and ASW rockets, GRSE Chairman & Managing Director Commodore P R Hari (Retd) said, "We have delivered 70 warships to the Navy so far. 19 more are under various stages of construction. Among them, 10 ships were already launched. Now the eleventh has been launched."

He added, "Coming specifically to the ASW SWC project, 16 ships are being built for the Navy- 8 by GRSE and 8 by another PSU shipyard. Of these 16, 4 including the one, which was launched today, have been built by GRSE."

The ASW SWCs Are Designed To:

Find, track, and deter enemy submarines
Damage or destroy enemy submarines
Defend against intruding aircraft
Minelaying
Search-and-rescue (SAR)