This week the Indian Navy will induct the first of three Talwar-class warships, 'INS Teg' to bolster its war-fighting capabilities, Chief of Material Vice Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan said.

India had signed a $1.6bn contract with Russia in July 2006 to build additional three Talwar-class frigates: 'INS Teg', 'INS Tarkash', and 'INS Trikand'.

The three additional frigates will join the existing warships of the same class, 'INS Talwar' (sword), 'INS Trishul' (trident) and 'INS Tabar' (axe), which are currently in active service with the Indian Navy.

Designed and built in Russia, the Talwar-class guided missile frigate has a displacement capacity of 4,000 tonnes and a maximum speed of 30 knots.

A modified version of the Krivak III-class frigate, Talwar frigates are capable of  a range of missions, including finding and eliminating enemy submarines and large surface ships.

The new vessel 'Teg', followed by 'Teer' and 'Trikand', will be fitted with domestically-built BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, replacing the original Russian Klub missiles.

'INS Teg' features a 100mm gun, a Shtil-1 medium-range surface-to-air missile system, two Kashtan air defence gun/missile systems, two twin 533mm torpedo tubes and an anti-submarine warfare helicopter.

The warship also features Trebovaniye-M combat information and control system to manage and control all weapons on board depending on the situation analysis and transfers the data to the weapon systems.

Earlier this year, 'INS Teg' has undergone sea trials during which all its on-board systems including armaments were tested while validating its capability to be fully ready for final stage of acceptance trials, the Yantar shipyard said.

'INS Teg' was laid down in 2007, while 'INS Tarkash' and 'INS Trikand' are at various stages of construction at the Yantar shipyard and are expected to be delivered in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

Source: Naval-Technology.com