An agreement worth $2.3 billion was signed on August 25 between the Indian Ministry of Defense and Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) for the local building of the Fleet Support Ship (FSS). In this context, in 2019, the Turkish company TAIS was the best bidder for the building of 5 FSSs with a displacement of 45,000 tons.
TAIS will play an important role in the project, particularly in shipyard modernization. In March 2020, an agreement was signed between HSL and Anadolu Shipyard for design cooperation and the supply of main machinery equipment.
The building of the vessels will be carried out at HSL’s compound in Vizag. The FSS will be used to supply fuel, water, ammunition and depot supply to vessels at sea, enabling the Indian Navy to operate for extended periods without returning to port. This will increase the Indian Navy’s strategic reach and mobility. The vessels will also be able to be deployed for evacuation of people, humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations.
Technology transfer from Anadolu Shipyard to India Within the scope of the 1.5 to 2 billion dollar project, an agreement was signed for the transfer of technology from Anadolu Shipyard, one of the three members of TAIS Shipyard, which designed the Fleet Support Ship, to HSL.
With the transferred technology, HSL was planned to build 5 Fleet Support Ships expected to be ordered by the Indian Navy in October 2021. The first vessel was planned to be delivered 4 years after the order, with the others to be delivered at 10-12 month intervals.
In March 2020, TAIS Shipyard was contracted to design India’s Fleet Support Ship. TAIS Shipyard would also provide technology transfer, planning and engineering services to HSL under the agreement. Although similar in design to the supply vessels built for Pakistan and DIMDEG, the FSS is planned to be much more bulky compared to these two vessels with a displacement of 45 thousand tons and a length of 230 m.
Fleet replenishment vessel built for Pakistan
TAIS Shipyard was established in partnership with Anadolu Shipyard, Sedef Shipyard and Sefine Shipyard. Its shipyards are the main contractor in navy projects such as the Multi-Purpose Amphibious Assault Ship, LCT Fast Amphibious Ship and LST Amphibious Ship.
Source:: DefenseTurk
