India To Soon Deploy Long-Range Missile Tracking Ship

Mar 17, 2021

India’s first missile tracking ship in Visakhapatnam

NEW DELHI: India will soon be able to deploy a specialized oceanic surveillance ship capable of tracking nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles at long ranges as well as undertaking critical hydrographic surveys in the Indian Ocean Region.

The indigenously-built 15,000-tonne missile range instrumentation ship, which will be commissioned as INS Dhruv within the next few months, is equipped with a wide array of long-range radars and other sensors to act as an early-warning system for hostile ballistic missiles.
Once such incoming missiles are detected by the radars on board the ship, the land-based ballistic missile defence (BMD) systems can conceivably take over to track and shoot them down.

The two-tier BMD system being developed by DRDO has AAD (advanced air defence) and PAD (Prithvi air defence) interceptor missiles to intercept enemy missiles in the 2,000-km class.

The 175-meter-long oceanic surveillance vessel, codenamed `VC 11184’ as part of a classified project, has been under-construction at the Hindustan Shipyard Ltd at Vizag since 2013-2014, as was earlier reported by TOI.

Once the advanced ship is commissioned later this year, India will join a handful of countries, like the US, Russia, China and France, with the capability to monitor missile launches from long distances away.

To be manned by personnel from the National Technical Research Organisation as well as the Navy and DRDO, the ship has been undergoing a series of tests for the last couple of years. The ship will also be used to monitor the telemetry data of strategic missiles launched by India during trials.

Courtesy: TOI