Indian Navy is set to strengthen its combat capabilities in the next five-six years with a wide range of ships, submarines and helicopters expected to join its fleet, and has 36 warships and submarines under construction in various Indian shipyards. The major projects include construction of an indigenous aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine.

Talking to mediapersons at the annual press conference ahead of the Indian Navy day, the Naval chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said, ?There are presently 36 ships and submarines on order in various Indian shipyards. Our ship and submarine building programmes are largely on track. Amongst major projects the construction of our Indigenous Aircraft Carrier at Kochi is progressing satisfactorily, though with some hiccups and the refurbishment of Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) at Russia is doing well.?

The Navy currently operates 15 conventional submarines, but these are soon approaching their obsolescence stage. Of the existing fleet, 10 are Kilo class submarines, four HDW submarines and the last belongs to the Foxtrot class.

The ships expected to be inducted in 2011 are two Shivalik class multi-role stealth frigates, two follow-on Talwar class guided missile frigates, two fleet tankers and two survey vessels. However, the Navy is supplementing its acquisition process by acquiring vessels from abroad.

?Among the inductions planned from abroad are the carrier Vikramaditya (Gorshkov), three follow-on ships of the Talwar class from Russia and two replenishment tankers from Italy. The first of the tankers will be delivered to us by the end of December this year and will be delivered to us by early 2011,? said Verma.

In an effort to meet the growing Chinese maritime power, the Indian Navy is eyeing to have at least two carrier battle groups on each coast of India. Presently, it operates one aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which after a refurbishment would be in service for another few years.

Incidentally, the launching of indigenous aircraft carrier, which was expected to float this year, has been pushed back. Responding to a question, the naval chief pointed out that, ?The ship was to be launched this year. But there were problems in gear box and also a truck carrying its generators met an accident in Pune. This had a cascading effect. Now we are expecting to launch it in the sea by mid 2011 and it will be made operational by 2014.?