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INS Tabar (F44)
Encyclopedia
INS Tabar (F44) (translated as Battle axe) is the third of the s of the Indian Navy
. The frigate was commissioned on 19 April 2004 in Kaliningrad
, Russia
. INS Tabar is the first vessel in the Talwar class to be armed with supersonic BrahMos
(PJ-10) anti-ship
cruise missiles. She is also equipped with Barak missiles. The commissioning CO of Tabar was Capt.Ag Thapliyal
After a 12 port commissioning cruise INS Tabar reached her homeport of Mumbai
31 July 2004. Along with her sister ships INS Talwar
(sword in Sanskrit) and INS Trishul
(trident in Sanskrit), INS Tabar is assigned to Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command, headquartered in Mumbai. INS Tabar is a well-equipped warship that has the ability to handle air/surface/sub-surface missions or defending herself operating either independently on maritime missions or supporting a larger naval task force.
Adelaide class frigate. Fully loaded, INS Tabar has a displacement of 4035 tons. The main engines of INS Tabar are the Zorya/Mashproekt M7N-1E gas turbine
plant comprising two DS-71 cruise turbines (each rated up to 9000 hp) and two DT-59 boost turbines. These powerplants move INS Tabar to 30 knots (58.8 km/h). Her maximum range is 4850 nautical miles (8,982.2 km) at 14 knots (27.4 km/h), while at 30 knots (58.8 km/h) the range lessens to 1600 miles (2,574.9 km). One downside for INS Tabar and her sister ships is the amount of smoke her engines produce.
systems include one single-rail MS-196 launcher that can launch the long range Shtil-1 (NATO: SA-17) surface to air missile. Eight Igla-1E (NATO: SA-16) portable air defence missiles are on board for short-range threats. INS Tabar became the third Indian warship to incorporate an eight cell KBSM 3S-14NE Vertical Launcher and was the first to upload the new Indian/Russian designed missile, the supersonic BrahMos PJ-10 ASCM
(anti-sub/ship/surface cruise missile). INS Tabars VLS can launch the Indian designed 3M-54E Klub-N
(NATO: SS-N-27) subsonic ASCM. INS Tabar has one 100-mm A-190 (E) Dual Purpose Gun mount for surface and air targets. Its rate of fire is 60 rounds a minute at a range of 15 km.
Two Kashtan
Air Defence Gun/Missile mounts are INS Tabar's Close-In Weapons System (CIWS). The Kashtan CIWS has two GSh-30k
30 mm Gatling guns per mount firing 5,000 rounds a minute, along with eight 9M-311 Grison missiles (NATO: SA-N-11) with a range of 8 km. There are 64 Grison reloads (32 each mount) with a package of four missile taking less than 2 minutes to load. Forward of INS Tabar's bridge and aft of the VLS is one 12-round RBU-6000
anti-submarine warfare rocket launch that can fire either Splav-90R rockets or RGB-60 depth charges. Two pairs of fixed 533-mm DTA-53 torpedo tubes are located port and starboard midships. Both can launch either SET-65E anti-sub and 53-65KE antiship torpedoes.
INS Tabar's sonar is the BEL APSOH (Advanced Panoramic Sonar Hull) hull-mounted sonar. The APSOH sonar has active ranging, passive listening, and auto tracking of targets. For countermeasures INS Tabar includes the Russian TK-25E-5 electronic warfare suite and 120 mm chaff and infrared decoy rounds fired by four KT-216 launchers.
INS Tabar has also possibility to carry one Ka-28 or one Indian-made HAL Dhruv
.
incident, and a host of other pirate attacks on Indian vessels, as well as the general lawlessness around the Horn of Africa
, the Indian government deployed the INS Tabar to the area to conduct anti-piracy surveillance and patrol operations. She arrived to patrol the Gulf of Aden
on 2 November 2008.
On 11 November 2008, the INS Tabar was called into action to fight off a pirate attack on an Indian ship, the 38,265-tonne bulk carrier owned by the Mumbai
-based Great Eastern Shipping Company Jag Arnav, and a Saudi-registered vessel, MV Timaha. Both ships had crossed the Suez Canal when they were attacked by pirates who surrounded the vessel in small boats. An Indian navy spokesman said there were no casualties in the operation. "Both the ships had crossed the Suez Canal and were a short distance away from Aden when the Saudi vessel was attacked by these boats, each carrying up to five pirates each. Our frigate patrolling the area responded to a distress call by "MV Timaha" and sent an attack helicopter carrying commandos which opened fire while the pirates were making repeated attempts to board the Saudi ship. While all this was on, the Indian cargo ship was attacked within the next 30 minutes. As the Jag Arnavs was about 25 nmi (46.3 km) away it gave a distress call
. A Chetak
helicopter, carrying a team of MARCOS
(Indian Navy Marine Commandos) personnel, was sent to the location of the MV Jag Arnav. After the ensuing battle, the team successfully thwarted the hijack attempt. The incident took place 60 nmi (111.1 km) from the Somalian coast.
From November 2 to 19, Indian naval operations in the area, led by INS Tabar, successfully escorted approximately 35 ships, including many non-Indian flagged vessels, safely during their transit through these pirate-infested waters.
On November 20, an anonymous Indian Navy official announced that the Tabar will be replaced in the Gulf of Aden by the destroyer INS Mysore
, which at 6,700 tonnes is a larger ship with a greater holding capacity.
's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur
, Noel Choong, said "If all warships do this, it will be a strong deterrent. But if it's just a rare case, then it won't work. It's about time that such a forceful action is taken. It's an action that everybody is waiting for. The United Nations
and international community must decide how to solve this grave problem (of piracy). They must be more forceful in their action...[action should have been taken] years back or even last year when piracy was just starting–it's clearly getting worse and out of control."
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
also welcomed a decision by India and other countries to cooperate with Somalia in the fight against piracy
in its waters. In a report on Somalia submitted to the Security Council
, Ban said "I welcome the decision of the governments of India and the Russian Federation to cooperate with the Transitional Federal Government
of Somalia to fight piracy and armed robbery against ships."
. The attack continued for about three to four more hours, and resulted in the sinking of the pirate's "mother ship". The INS Tabar also forced the abandonment of another pirate vessel, while several pirates managed to escape via a speedboat under the cover of darkness. Recalling the incident to media persons, an Indian naval spokesman, Commander
Nirad Sinha, said that the "INS Tabar encountered a pirate vessel south west of Oman with two speedboats in tow. This vessel was similar in description to the 'mother vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins. INS Tabar closed in on the vessel and asked her to stop for investigation. Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of the vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued threatening calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar."
Reports later surfaced that the sunken "mothership" was originally a Thai fishing trawler
, the FV Ekawat Nava 5
, captured by the pirates which still had the Thai crew captive on-board. One sailor was reportedly still alive, another confirmed dead, and 14 sailors remained missing. The surviving member of the trawler's crew was picked up by a passing ship after six days adrift on the ocean and was taken to Yemen where he informed the owner of the trawler of the events. The survivor said all the crew were tied up under the deck, except the captain and translator.
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy is the naval branch of the armed forces of India. The President of India serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff , usually a four-star officer in the rank of Admiral, commands the Navy...
. The frigate was commissioned on 19 April 2004 in Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. INS Tabar is the first vessel in the Talwar class to be armed with supersonic BrahMos
BrahMos
BrahMos is a stealth supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is a joint venture between Republic of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russian Federation's NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed BrahMos Aerospace...
(PJ-10) anti-ship
Anti-ship missile
Anti-ship missiles are guided missiles that are designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming type, many use a combination of inertial guidance and radar homing...
cruise missiles. She is also equipped with Barak missiles. The commissioning CO of Tabar was Capt.Ag Thapliyal
After a 12 port commissioning cruise INS Tabar reached her homeport of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
31 July 2004. Along with her sister ships INS Talwar
INS Talwar (F40)
INS Talwar is the lead ship of the Talwar class frigates of the Indian Navy. Its name means "Sword" in Hindi . It was built in Russia, and commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2003....
(sword in Sanskrit) and INS Trishul
INS Trishul (F43)
INS Trishul is the second ship of the of the Indian Navy.-Design:Trishul belongs to the Talwar class of frigates. The Talwar class guided missile frigates are modified Krivak III class frigates built by Russia. These ships use stealth technologies and a special hull design to ensure a reduced...
(trident in Sanskrit), INS Tabar is assigned to Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command, headquartered in Mumbai. INS Tabar is a well-equipped warship that has the ability to handle air/surface/sub-surface missions or defending herself operating either independently on maritime missions or supporting a larger naval task force.
Design and performance
INS Tabars 28 officers and 232 sailors living conditions are similar to those on the RAN’sRán
In Norse mythology, Rán is a sea goddess. According to Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, in his retelling of the Poetic Edda poem Lokasenna, she is married to Ægir and they have nine daughters together...
Adelaide class frigate. Fully loaded, INS Tabar has a displacement of 4035 tons. The main engines of INS Tabar are the Zorya/Mashproekt M7N-1E gas turbine
Gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....
plant comprising two DS-71 cruise turbines (each rated up to 9000 hp) and two DT-59 boost turbines. These powerplants move INS Tabar to 30 knots (58.8 km/h). Her maximum range is 4850 nautical miles (8,982.2 km) at 14 knots (27.4 km/h), while at 30 knots (58.8 km/h) the range lessens to 1600 miles (2,574.9 km). One downside for INS Tabar and her sister ships is the amount of smoke her engines produce.
Armament
The surface to air weaponsSurface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...
systems include one single-rail MS-196 launcher that can launch the long range Shtil-1 (NATO: SA-17) surface to air missile. Eight Igla-1E (NATO: SA-16) portable air defence missiles are on board for short-range threats. INS Tabar became the third Indian warship to incorporate an eight cell KBSM 3S-14NE Vertical Launcher and was the first to upload the new Indian/Russian designed missile, the supersonic BrahMos PJ-10 ASCM
BrahMos
BrahMos is a stealth supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is a joint venture between Republic of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russian Federation's NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed BrahMos Aerospace...
(anti-sub/ship/surface cruise missile). INS Tabars VLS can launch the Indian designed 3M-54E Klub-N
3M-54 Klub
The Russian 3M-54 Klub is a multi-role missile system developed by the Novator Design Bureau. Its NATO reporting name is SS-N-27. Both submarine and surface ship launched versions exist. The system is designed to accept various warheads, allowing its use against surface and subsurface naval...
(NATO: SS-N-27) subsonic ASCM. INS Tabar has one 100-mm A-190 (E) Dual Purpose Gun mount for surface and air targets. Its rate of fire is 60 rounds a minute at a range of 15 km.
Two Kashtan
Kashtan
Kashtan is surname of:* Dror Kashtan , Israeli footballer and manager* William Kashtan , general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada- See also :* Kashtan CIWS * Kasztanka* Castanea* Kastania...
Air Defence Gun/Missile mounts are INS Tabar's Close-In Weapons System (CIWS). The Kashtan CIWS has two GSh-30k
Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-30
The Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-30 is a Russian 30 mm cannon used by Soviet and later CIS military aircraft.The GSh-6-30, designed in the early 1970s and entering service in 1975, is a six-barreled Gatling gun similar in design to the Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-23. It was based on the naval AO-18 used in...
30 mm Gatling guns per mount firing 5,000 rounds a minute, along with eight 9M-311 Grison missiles (NATO: SA-N-11) with a range of 8 km. There are 64 Grison reloads (32 each mount) with a package of four missile taking less than 2 minutes to load. Forward of INS Tabar's bridge and aft of the VLS is one 12-round RBU-6000
RBU-6000
The RBU-6000 Smerch-2 is a 213 mm caliber Soviet anti-submarine rocket launcher. It is similar in principle to the Royal Navy Hedgehog system used during the Second World War...
anti-submarine warfare rocket launch that can fire either Splav-90R rockets or RGB-60 depth charges. Two pairs of fixed 533-mm DTA-53 torpedo tubes are located port and starboard midships. Both can launch either SET-65E anti-sub and 53-65KE antiship torpedoes.
Sensors
Controlling this array of weapons is the Trebovaniye-M combat information and control system that can control all of INS Tabar's weapons as well as using situation analysis to generate combat missions. The combat system can transmit data and process information from up to 250 sources. With a range of nearly 300 km, the Fregat M2EM (NATO: Top Plate) 3D radar is INS Tabar's air/surface radar. The M2EM system features continuous scanned arrays along with providing targeting information for the Shtil-1 missile system. One 3Ts-25E Garpun-B radar unit is utilised for long-range surface search and target acquisition. INS Tabar is also equipped with two navigation radars. INS Tabar's fire control is the Ratep JSC 5P-10E Puma fire control system. The Puma uses phased array and target tracking radar along with laser and TV devices. The Puma can operate autonomously with the ability of automatically detecting, locking on, and tracking four targets at once.INS Tabar's sonar is the BEL APSOH (Advanced Panoramic Sonar Hull) hull-mounted sonar. The APSOH sonar has active ranging, passive listening, and auto tracking of targets. For countermeasures INS Tabar includes the Russian TK-25E-5 electronic warfare suite and 120 mm chaff and infrared decoy rounds fired by four KT-216 launchers.
Air operations
For her deployment INS Tabar had a Ka-31 Helix-B AEW helicopter embarked from Indian Naval Air Squadron 339 ‘Falcons’ Squadron in Mumbai. With a flight crew of 2, the Ka-31 has a speed of 143 knots (280.3 km/h) and a maximum ceiling of 6,000 metres. Its range is a maximun of 540 nautical miles (1,000.1 km) and can remain airborne for 4.5 hours. The Ka-31’s airborne early warning radar is the E-801M Oko (Eye), a 6x1 meter planar array located beneath the fuselage. The radar unfolds during flight and has the ability to detect up to 200 targets while simultaneously track up to 20 airborne or surface threats from a range of 115 km from an altitude of nearly 10000 ft (3,048 m) Information gathered can be transmitted via an encoded data-link to a ship or shore command post.INS Tabar has also possibility to carry one Ka-28 or one Indian-made HAL Dhruv
HAL Dhruv
The HAL Dhruv is a utility helicopter developed and manufactured by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited . Dhruv was first announced in November 1984. The ALH was designed with assistance from MBB in Germany. The Dhruv first flew in 1992; but, due to the changing demands of the Indian Army and...
.
Operations near the Horn of Africa
Following the media attention to the MT Stolt ValorMT Stolt Valor
The MT Stolt Valor is a Hong Kong-flagged ship that was hijacked while in the Designated Safety Corridor within the Gulf of Aden, approximately away from the coast of Yemen, while heading from the United States south through the Gulf towards Asia. After the ship passed through the Suez Canal, it...
incident, and a host of other pirate attacks on Indian vessels, as well as the general lawlessness around the Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
, the Indian government deployed the INS Tabar to the area to conduct anti-piracy surveillance and patrol operations. She arrived to patrol the Gulf of Aden
Gulf of Aden
The Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is about 20 miles wide....
on 2 November 2008.
On 11 November 2008, the INS Tabar was called into action to fight off a pirate attack on an Indian ship, the 38,265-tonne bulk carrier owned by the Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
-based Great Eastern Shipping Company Jag Arnav, and a Saudi-registered vessel, MV Timaha. Both ships had crossed the Suez Canal when they were attacked by pirates who surrounded the vessel in small boats. An Indian navy spokesman said there were no casualties in the operation. "Both the ships had crossed the Suez Canal and were a short distance away from Aden when the Saudi vessel was attacked by these boats, each carrying up to five pirates each. Our frigate patrolling the area responded to a distress call by "MV Timaha" and sent an attack helicopter carrying commandos which opened fire while the pirates were making repeated attempts to board the Saudi ship. While all this was on, the Indian cargo ship was attacked within the next 30 minutes. As the Jag Arnavs was about 25 nmi (46.3 km) away it gave a distress call
SOS
SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...
. A Chetak
Aérospatiale Alouette III
The Aérospatiale Alouette III is a single-engine, light utility helicopter developed by Sud Aviation. It was manufactured by Aérospatiale of France, and under licence by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in India as Hal Chetak and Industria Aeronautică Română in Romania.The Alouette III is the...
helicopter, carrying a team of MARCOS
Marcos
-Sports:* Dayton Marcos, Negro League baseball team from Dayton, Ohio * Nélson Marcos, Portuguese footballer* Marcos Ambrose, Australian racing driver currently competing in NASCAR* Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot tennis player...
(Indian Navy Marine Commandos) personnel, was sent to the location of the MV Jag Arnav. After the ensuing battle, the team successfully thwarted the hijack attempt. The incident took place 60 nmi (111.1 km) from the Somalian coast.
From November 2 to 19, Indian naval operations in the area, led by INS Tabar, successfully escorted approximately 35 ships, including many non-Indian flagged vessels, safely during their transit through these pirate-infested waters.
On November 20, an anonymous Indian Navy official announced that the Tabar will be replaced in the Gulf of Aden by the destroyer INS Mysore
INS Mysore (D60)
INS Mysore is a Delhi-class guided-missile destroyer currently in active service with the Indian Navy.-History:INS Mysore was built at Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai. Her keel was laid down in February 1991 and she was launched on 4 June 1993...
, which at 6,700 tonnes is a larger ship with a greater holding capacity.
International reactions
The head of the International Maritime BureauInternational Maritime Bureau
The International Maritime Bureau is a specialized department of the International Chamber of Commerce.The IMB's responsibilities lie in fighting crimes related to maritime trade and transportation, particularly piracy and commercial fraud, and in protecting the crews of ocean-going vessels.It...
's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, Noel Choong, said "If all warships do this, it will be a strong deterrent. But if it's just a rare case, then it won't work. It's about time that such a forceful action is taken. It's an action that everybody is waiting for. The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and international community must decide how to solve this grave problem (of piracy). They must be more forceful in their action...[action should have been taken] years back or even last year when piracy was just starting–it's clearly getting worse and out of control."
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
also welcomed a decision by India and other countries to cooperate with Somalia in the fight against piracy
2008 in piracy
See also:2007 in piracy,other events of 2008,2009 in piracy and thelist of 'years of Piracy'.----There were 49 ships reported pirate attacks in the first three months of 2008, up from 41 in that period of 2007...
in its waters. In a report on Somalia submitted to the Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
, Ban said "I welcome the decision of the governments of India and the Russian Federation to cooperate with the Transitional Federal Government
Transitional Federal Government
The Transitional Federal Government is the current internationally recognized government of the Republic of Somalia. It was established as one of the Transitional Federal Institutions of government as defined in the Transitional Federal Charter adopted in November 2004 by the Transitional...
of Somalia to fight piracy and armed robbery against ships."
Attack and controversial sinking
Just over a week after the MV Jav Arnav incident, on 19 November 2008, the Indian Navy reported that the INS Tabar had come under attack from pirates. The INS Tabar crew requested that the pirate vessel stop to allow a search, but the pirates responded with a threat to sink the INS Tabar if it came any closer. The pirates then opened fire on the INS Tabar before the Indian navy responded by returning fire. After the retaliatory strike, it was reported that a large explosion occurred on the pirate vessel, rumoured to have been caused by the pirates' weapons cacheCache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
. The attack continued for about three to four more hours, and resulted in the sinking of the pirate's "mother ship". The INS Tabar also forced the abandonment of another pirate vessel, while several pirates managed to escape via a speedboat under the cover of darkness. Recalling the incident to media persons, an Indian naval spokesman, Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
Nirad Sinha, said that the "INS Tabar encountered a pirate vessel south west of Oman with two speedboats in tow. This vessel was similar in description to the 'mother vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins. INS Tabar closed in on the vessel and asked her to stop for investigation. Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of the vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued threatening calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar."
Reports later surfaced that the sunken "mothership" was originally a Thai fishing trawler
Naval trawler
A naval trawler is a vessel built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes. Naval trawlers were widely used during the First and Second world wars. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust boats designed to work...
, the FV Ekawat Nava 5
FV Ekawat Nava 5
FV Ekawat Nava 5 was a hijacked Kiribati-flagged, Thai-owned deep sea fishing trawler that was sunk by of the Indian Navy on 18 November 2008. The trawler sank when a fire broke out on the vessel after INS Tabar retaliated to being fired upon by pirates on board...
, captured by the pirates which still had the Thai crew captive on-board. One sailor was reportedly still alive, another confirmed dead, and 14 sailors remained missing. The surviving member of the trawler's crew was picked up by a passing ship after six days adrift on the ocean and was taken to Yemen where he informed the owner of the trawler of the events. The survivor said all the crew were tied up under the deck, except the captain and translator.
See also
- List of terrorist incidents, 2008
- Indian foreign policy prerogative