Moscow, June 15: With successful completion of trials, two of the three state-of-the-art Russian stealth frigates ordered by India in 1997 are ready for delivery to the Indian Navy. First of the three Krivak class stealth frigates of project 11356 "Talwar", built at St Petersburg-based Baltiisky Zavod shipyard has successfully completed its pre-delivery trials in the Baltic sea, while second frigate "Trishul" has already completed all the formalities for the delivery, according to the Ria Novosti news agency.

The third frigate "Tabar" is undergoing factory trials.

India had signed about USD 1 billion deal with Russia for the development of 3 new generation stealth frigates for the Navy on the basis of Krivak project.

The frigates with the displacement of 4035 tonnes are armed with the latest hardware available today including Club-N anti-ship cruise missiles, medium range "Shitl-1" air defence system and powerful anti-aircraft gun A-190E "Puma".

Due to problems of adapting electronic systems of "Puma" gun with other weapons the delivery of the frigates was postponed for more than a year.

This is for the first time any ship in the world would be having the rapid fire gun Puma, with unique fire-control system - a joint product of the best military enterprises of Russia, experts here say.

Stealth frigates, used for a wide range of tasks including air defence, anti-submarine warfare, can also be armed with "Brahmos" cruise missiles jointly developed and produced by Russia and India.

Bureau Report