ST.PETERSBURG, August 27 (AVN) - The Talwar (Sword) frigate which is being built for the Indian Navy by the Baltic Shipyard JS is expected to start sea trials in early October, a spokesman for the shipyard administration told the Military News Agency on Monday.
The Talwar is the first vessel of Project 11356. The contract signed by the Rosvooruzheniye (currently Rosoboronexport) state-owned arms trader and the Indian Defence Ministry in November 1997 envisaged the supplies of three frigates to India. The Talwar was set afloat on May 12, 2000, the second vessel named Trishul (Trident) on November 24, 2000, and the third one named Tabar (Poleaxe) on May 25, 2000.
The Talwar has passed mooring and factory tests and will be handed to the customer in April or May 2002, the spokesman said.
Project 11356 was developed by the Severnoye projecting and design bureau. It is an export variant of a Russian guard ship. The frigate has the displacement of 4,000t, speed of 30 knots and is capable to accomplish a wide scale of missions in the ocean, primarily, finding and eliminating submarines and large surface ships.
The frigate is armed with a new Club attack anti-ship system with vertical launch of missiles, as well as with the RBU-6000 jet bomb launcher and two Kashtan SAM systems. The vessel is fitted with the new A-190E 100mm artillery system with the rate of fire of 80 rounds per minute. The system can fire at two anti-ship missiles, naval or aerial targets simultaneously. The frigate can carry an anti-submarine helicopter as well.