OFFSHORE PATROL VESSELS AND MISSILE VESSELS

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Context

• The Defence Ministry signed four contracts worth ₹22,986 crore for acquisition of 11 Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels (NG-OPVs) and six Next Generation Missile Vessels (NGMVs) for the Navy, and equipment and BrahMos supersonic missiles for coastal defence.

About the contract

NG-OPVs

• The contract for acquisition of 11 NG-OPVs was signed with Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.
• Of the 11 ships, seven will be indigenously designed, developed and manufactured by GSL and four by GRSE.

Need

• The acquisition of these ships will enable the Navy to maintain its combat capability and meet various operational requirements such as anti-piracy, counter-infiltration, anti-poaching, anti-trafficking, non-combatant evacuation operations, Search and Rescue (SAR) and protection of offshore assets.

Armed vessels

• The contract for acquisition of six NGMVs was signed with Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) and delivery is scheduled to commence from March 2027.

Need

• The NGMVs would be heavily armed war vessels incorporating stealth, high speed and offensive capability.

About OPV

• A patrol boat is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement.
• There are many designs for patrol boats, and they generally range in size.
• They may be operated by a nation's navy, coast guard, police, or customs, and may be intended for marine ("blue water"), estuarine ("green water"), or river ("brown water") environments.
• Depending on the size, organization, and capabilities of a nation's armed forces, the importance of patrol boats may range from minor support vessels that are part of a coast guard, to flagships that make up a majority of a navy's fleet.
• Their small size and relatively low cost make them one of the most common naval vessels in the world

Uses

• Patrol boats are primarily used to patrol a country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but they may also be used in other roles, such as anti-smuggling, anti-piracy, fishery patrols, immigration law enforcement, or search and rescue.

Classification

• They may be as large as a frigate or a corvette, though the term may also be used for vessels as small as a yacht or rigid inflatable boat.
• They can include fast attack craft, torpedo boats, and missile boats.
• They may be broadly classified as inshore patrol vessels (IPVs) or offshore patrol vessels (OPVs).
• OPVs are usually the smallest ship in a navy's fleet that are large and seaworthy enough to patrol off-shore in the open ocean, while IPVs are typically too small to do so and are instead kept in lakes or rivers, or close to coasts; IPVs specifically used in rivers can also be called "riverine patrol vessels".

About Next Generation Missile Vessels

• They are a planned class of anti-surface warfare corvettes for the Indian Navy.
• Under this programme the Indian Navy intends to acquire six advanced missile vessels.
• Ships in this class will be armed with Anti-ship missile or Land-attack missile like BrahMos.
• Ships under this class will feature advanced stealth features like a low radar cross section (RCS), infrared, acoustic and magnetic signatures.

Description

• The range will be at least 2,800 nautical miles and speed performance will be 25 knots.
• The ships will carry eight surface-to-surface missiles, a full-fledged surface-to-air missile (SAM) system.
• The ships will also have radar and electro-optically (EO) guided close-in weapon systems (CIWS) with 360-degree anti-missile defence.

About BrahMos

• The BrahMos (designated PJ-10) is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft, or land.
• It is the world's fastest anti-ship cruise missile in operation.

Developing Agencies:

• It is a joint venture between the Russian Federation's NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), who together have formed BrahMos Aerospace.
• It is the world's fastest anti-ship cruise missile in operation.

Version in use: 

• Land-launched and ship-launched versions.

Recent developments:

• In 2016, India became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime(MTCR), India and Russia are now jointly developing a new generation of Brahmos missiles with 600 km-plus range.
• In 2019, India upgraded the missile with a new range of 500 km.

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