India mine-hunting warship: India has again started working on a major plan to build 12 special warships that can find and destroy mines under the sea. These ships are very important because they will help keep the country’s ports and trade ships safe from enemy attacks. The plan is worth around ₹44,000 crore and the Defence Ministry is getting ready to put it in front of the Defence Acquisition Council, which is led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, for approval.
A report in TOI shared that a tender will soon be sent out to Indian shipyards so they can send their offers. The whole plan will move forward only after the ministry gives the “acceptance of necessity (AoN)”. Once that happens, a request for proposal (RFP) will be shared so Indian shipyards can submit both technical and price bids.
Gujarat Health Worker Arrested for Leaking Defence Secrets to Pakistani Spy: ATS
Sources from the ministry said that these warships, called Mine Counter Measure Vessels or MCMVs, are really needed right now because of rising movement of submarines, especially from China, in the Indian Ocean. “It will take at least 7-8 years, if not more, for the first MCMV to roll out after the contract is inked,” one of the sources said. China has both nuclear and regular submarines that can place dangerous mines in the ocean without anyone noticing.
Pakistan is also growing its submarine force and will soon get eight new Yuan-class diesel-electric submarines from China. At the moment, India doesn’t have any special ships that can remove sea mines. In the past, the Navy had some Karwar-class and Pondicherry-class minesweepers, but all of them have been retired. Right now, the Navy is using some temporary tools called “clip-on mine countermeasure suites” on regular warships, but this is not enough. Experts say that India needs at least 24 of these MCMVs to watch over the long 7,516-km coastline and protect 13 big ports and more than 200 smaller ports.
Underwater sea mines are very dangerous because they are cheap to make and easy to hide. Both countries and terrorists or other groups can use them to hurt or destroy warships, oil tankers, or cargo ships. They can also stop ships from getting into important ports and harbors. India’s plan to get these MCMVs started a long time ago, way back in 2005. At that time, Goa Shipyard teamed up with a South Korean company named Kangnam to build these ships. That plan, which was worth ₹32,000 crore, didn’t work out and was cancelled by the Defence Ministry in 2017 or 2018. The reason was that both sides could not agree on how to handle cost, technology sharing, and how the ships should be built.
Russia’s Air Defence Shoots Down 105 Ukrainian Drones
The new MCMVs will be advanced and modern. Each one will weigh between 900 and 1,000 tonnes and will be made with a non-magnetic hull so they don’t trigger any magnetic mines. The ships will carry high-quality sonar and will use sound and magnetic tools to find mines underwater. Once a mine is found, small underwater vehicles that are controlled remotely will be sent out to explode the mine from far away so the main ship stays safe.
Part of Navy’s Development
Indian Navy has more than 130 ships now and recently showed its strength during Operation Sindoor. For this mission, the Navy sent the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and other ships and submarines to the northern Arabian Sea to keep Pakistan in check. Right now, about 60 Navy ships and vessels are being built in Indian shipyards. The Navy will soon welcome INS Tamal, which is the second multi-role frigate of 3,900 tonnes made in Russia. It will be officially added to the Navy in Kaliningrad next month.
There are also plans that have already been approved to get 31 more ships. These include seven new-generation frigates, eight corvettes, and six new stealth submarines. But building ships takes time, and many older ones are being removed from service, so the Navy is likely to have only around 160 ships by the year 2030.
