Today, India commissioned a new warship, the INS Tamal. She is the latest in a line of eight Talwar-class stealth frigates. Similar in displacement and length to our own Type 23 frigate, superficially at least, she has a similar array of weapons and sensors. The one exception being the BrahMos anti-ship and land attack missile, theoretically a beast of a weapon with a range over 500 miles at speeds up to Mach 3, which would be far in excess of anything we have.
But there is a problem. Tamal was built by Russia in their Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad. For those of you who follow the Indian Navy, that they have some of their ships built by Russia will not come as news. Already an aircraft carrier, 50 per cent of their submarines and the Talwar class accounts for about 20 per cent of their fleet. Many of these programmes date back decades but of course, the international climate has changed rather a lot. India’s dependence on Russia for warships is at least reducing, but should it not already be close to zero?
Meanwhile, India’s trade in Russian oil reeks of duplicity. Despite Western sanctions, India’s refiners guzzle discounted crude, often shipped by dark fleet vessels dodging and falsifying their AIS tracking. By actively engaging with this trade, New Delhi flouts global rules, reaping economic rewards while feigning neutrality. The government’s coy silence on sanctioned oil flowing through Indian ports betrays a calculated dodge of accountability, undermining efforts to choke Russia’s war chest. India is financing Putin’s atrocities.
Today, India commissioned a new warship, the INS Tamal. She is the latest in a line of eight Talwar-class stealth frigates. Similar in displacement and length to our own Type 23 frigate, superficially at least, she has a similar array of weapons and sensors. The one exception being the BrahMos anti-ship and land attack missile, theoretically a beast of a weapon with a range over 500 miles at speeds up to Mach 3, which would be far in excess of anything we have.
But there is a problem. Tamal was built by Russia in their Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad. For those of you who follow the Indian Navy, that they have some of their ships built by Russia will not come as news. Already an aircraft carrier, 50 per cent of their submarines and the Talwar class accounts for about 20 per cent of their fleet. Many of these programmes date back decades but of course, the international climate has changed rather a lot. India’s dependence on Russia for warships is at least reducing, but should it not already be close to zero?
Meanwhile, India’s trade in Russian oil reeks of duplicity. Despite Western sanctions, India’s refiners guzzle discounted crude, often shipped by dark fleet vessels dodging and falsifying their AIS tracking. By actively engaging with this trade, New Delhi flouts global rules, reaping economic rewards while feigning neutrality. The government’s coy silence on sanctioned oil flowing through Indian ports betrays a calculated dodge of accountability, undermining efforts to choke Russia’s war chest. India is financing Putin’s atrocities.