Just to set the record straight we must point out a recent bloomer by the BBC in its report on the launching of INS SHIVALIK at Mumbai. (report reproduced below)

We were rather intrigued to read the item on INS Shivalik as BBC’s lead story on 22 April. BBC also juxtaposed a photo of INS Mysore a 6700 ton ship, alongside the story, thus misleading readers that it was the INS Shivalik.

If BBC's Defence reporters are of this quality then it does not augur well. The world normally looks to the BBC as the epitome of good news reporting designed to educate and inform the world. BBC's talents are perhaps busy in Iraq and elsewhere and hence we forgive them.

The Type 17 Project ship INS Shivalik was a mere hull with very few fittings, which was launched into the water at a formal launching ceremony at Mazagon Dock by Mrs Kumud Kumari wife of Admiral Madhvendra Singh the Chief of Naval Staff. The hull can do no trials till the ship is fitted out which will take two years at the least. The launching ceremony is quite distinct from a commissioning ceremony –– when the ship is fully ready to put to sea after successful trials.

The INS Shivalik will be the first of a class along with another first of class ship (Krivack class) –– INS Talwar, which is due to be commissioned soon at St Petresburg, Russia. The Talwar has commonality with the Shivalik and will propel the Indian Navy into a true blue water role in the future –– as a total of 15 ships of the line are to be built.

The Shivalik programme could well replicate the very successful Leander story –– the first of which, INS Nilgiri, was commissioned by Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1972. The present CNS, Admiral Madhvendra Singh was then the commissioning gunnery officer of Nilgiri and it was the first ship fitted with missiles. INS Nilgiri set a world record of sorts by downing three Royal Navy PTAs in a row with its SEACAT missiles, during trials off Singapore. Incidentally as a Commander, Madhvendra Singh was the CO of a namesake –– INS Talwar, an older Type 12 frigate that was fitted out by the Indian Navy with surface to surface missiles.

INS Talwar will be the first IN ship with vertically launched missiles, heralding a new era for the Indian Navy. 

Hope BBC is reading this!

“India trials stealth frigate
By Monica Chadha
(BBC correspondent in Bombay)

The Indian navy's first indigenous stealth frigate has begun trials.

The INS Shivalik is the first of 12 such warships the Indian navy plans to build.

Trials are being held in Bombay, also called Mumbai, where the vessel has been designed by the Naval Design bureau.

The ship is fitted with state-of-the-art technology and bristles with a sophisticated system of radars and weaponry.

The 143-metre-long frigate, which is over nine metres tall, is powered by two gas turbines and diesel engines to help it reach speeds of up to 32 knots.

Its armaments include surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, torpedo tubes, rocket launchers and indigenously designed sonar systems meant for detecting and attacking submarines.

'Power and punch'

Attending the launch, Defence Minister George Fernandes said the war on Iraq had shown the importance of a country's navy....... “