New Delhi (Sputnik) — India's state-owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) has issued a fresh global tender seeking collaboration in building five fleet support ships for the Indian Navy. According to the document, HSL is seeking as collaborator a reputed shipyard that can provide design, KME, and technical assistance for implementation of this project. The vessels would be used by the Navy to support the operations of carrier groups planned for the future.
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"The collaborator has to provide a design from a source who has designed a ship with similar capabilities which is in service with any Navy. Collaborator should have constructed and delivered a naval vessel of similar capabilities/capital warships on or after 01 Jan 2005 which should have been completed within four years of build period," the document issued by HSL reads.
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The Indian Navy had issued a request for information in 2011 for underway replenishment capability from these ships aimed to boost its warfare capabilities in the Southern Indian Ocean Region. The 200 meter long ships having the displacement capacity of around 40000-ton will play a critical role of fuelling at sea through the delivery of fluids. These five ships will be capable of handling multirole helicopter at sea and also perform tasks typically carried out by combat store ships and ammunition ships. It must be crewed by 190 sailors, including 24 officers.
These ships will be equipped with India's own developed advanced torpedo defense system, two 30 mm guns and two 12.7 mm guns in addition to four chaff launchers besides one expendable conductivity depth temperature profile launcher.