Ship for tracking ballistic missiles built under Make-In-India

New Delhi: India has succeeded in building a special surveillance ship to accurately track the enemy ballistic nuclear missiles. This substantially increases the Indian capability to track and destroy the enemy ballistic missiles. This ship has been developed as a part of the missile defence system and this surveillance ship will be handed over to the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) by the end of December. The ship has been built at a cost of INR 7.25 billion.

A decision had been made to make efforts to develop the missile defence system to protect against the enemy missiles, under the Make in India scheme. Prime Minister Modi had issued orders to all the concerned departments in this respect. Accordingly, development of this special surveillance ship was undertaken by the Hindustan Shipyard Limited in 2014. The surveillance ship equipped with the systems to track enemy missiles has been completed in four years’ time and is claimed to be the biggest surveillance ship built in India till date.

As per the media reports, the preliminary testing of the ship has been completed recently. Now the ship will be undergoing testing conducted jointly by the Navy and NTRO. Utmost secrecy had been maintained regarding this project so far. However, the information about it has been released before initiating the marine testing of this surveillance ship.

The ship has been named VC11184. The 15,000 tonnes ship is equipped with three antennas and sensors. There is a mini power plant generating 14 MW power. This electricity is supplied to the tracking radar, informed L.V. Sarath, the Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Shipyard Limited.

The ship will be handed over to the NTRO after all the testing is completed. This will further augment the Indian missile defence system.