The nation will witness a landmark event in the history of indigenous warship building when two frontline warships of Indian Navy will be launched concurrently at Mazgaon Docks Limited in Mumbai on May 17.

‘Surat’, a Project 15B Destroyer and ‘Udaygiri’, a Project 17A Frigate will be launched and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be the chief guest for both the events.

The Project 15B class of ships is the next generation stealth guided missile destroyers of the Indian Navy being built at the Mazgaon Docks Limited. ‘Surat’ is the fourth ship of Project 15B Destroyers which heralds a significant makeover of the P15A (Kolkata Class) Destroyers and is named after the commercial capital of the state of Gujarat and also the second largest commercial hub of western India after Mumbai.

‘Udaygiri’, named after a mountain range in the state of Andhra Pradesh, is the third ship of Project 17A Frigates. It is the reincarnation of erstwhile ‘Udaygiri’, the Leander Class ASW Frigate, which saw numerous challenging operations in its illustrious service to the country spanning over three decades from 18 Feb 1976 to 24 Aug 2007.

Under the P17A program, a total of seven ships, with 04 at MDL and 03 at GRSE are under construction. Various novel concepts and technologies like Integrated Construction, Mega Block Outsourcing, Project Data Management/ Project Lifecycle Management (PDM/PLM) etc have been adopted for the first time in indigenous Warship Design and Construction in this project.

Both 15B and P17A ships have been designed in-house by the Directorate of Naval Design (DND), which has been the fountainhead for all warship design activities of the Nation.

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