On August 16, 2014, India's Kolkata-class destroyer, hailed as the strongest in Asia, was finally officially delivered to the Navy under the personal auspices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after more than two decades of construction. However, it is shocking to note that the Kolkata destroyer, which was supposed to be responsible for air defense at sea, did not deploy any anti-aircraft weapons.
Is this a smoke bomb deliberately released by the Indian military in order to cover up its secret weapon? Or were they so excited after seeing that the ship was finally launched, that they forgot about the installation?
Today we will talk to you about why the Kolkata-class destroyer, which the Indian Navy has been grinding a "ship" for decades, takes so long, and can it be called the strongest in Asia?
When it comes to the long history of Kolkata-class destroyers, it starts with their earliest Delhi-class.
As a major country on the Indian peninsula, India has spared no effort to expand its armament for many years in order to achieve the goal of dominating the Indian Ocean.
In 1977, the Indian government approved a shipbuilding program codenamed 15 to build a new generation of destroyers. Since this is the first time that the Indian military has developed and built a large surface ship on its own, their initial idea was to choose a ready-made mature ship design and improve it. So, they ended up with the Soviet Kasin-class destroyer. It was named after a large Indian city and was a Delhi-class destroyer.
But those familiar with India's military industry know that their consistent problem is "this mountain looks at that mountain."
Therefore, the Delhi-class class, originally planned to enter service in 1992, was constantly designed, modified, redesigned, and modified, and after as many as 32 modifications, the first Delhi-class destroyer was not launched until March 20, 1995, and finally delivered to the Navy in November 1997, and several others were not commissioned until 2001, 24 years after the project was established. Since many of the equipment belonged to the level of the Soviet Union in the seventies and eighties, by the time it was completed, some of the designs and equipment were seriously outdated.
You know, in the context of modern warfare, ships of various countries have an increasingly high demand for air defense reconnaissance, information collection and other technologies, especially after the emergence of the US "Aegis" combat system, "shield ships" have become the target of various naval powers. In contrast, the Delhi class is seriously outdated. In desperation, the Indian military could only terminate the subsequent construction of the Delhi-class destroyer.
However, with India's military industrial strength, it is obviously too difficult to develop a homegrown "shield ship" on its own. Therefore, they changed their thinking and planned to strengthen the hull stealth design on the basis of the Delhi class, as well as add the latest weapons and equipment, and build a new generation of high-performance air defense destroyers, codenamed "15A". That is, the later "Kolkata"-class destroyers.
At the same time, it is also required that the "Kolkata"-class destroyer is bound to become the "first destroyer in Asia" that must not only make the Indian Navy proud, but also integrate the masterpiece of India's shipbuilding technology.
Thus, with the high expectations of the Indian people, the long construction of the "Kolkata"-class destroyers began.
As early as 1996, when the Kolkata class was first launched, its design indicators were indeed stronger than other Asian warships at that time. However, the efficiency of the Indian bureaucracy was so low that they struggled for four years in the constant debate over whether the idea of construction should be pro-Russian or pro-American, and it was only in May 2000 that they approved plans to build three Kolkata-class ships.
However, during the manufacturing process, various defects were discovered one after another, resulting in repeated design modifications, and as a result, by 2003, when it should have been launched, the Calcutta class had not yet started! Finally, after more than a decade, it was not until August 6, 2014, that the lead ship of the Kolkata class was handed over to the Indian Navy, and the construction cost increased by 225%, and the cost of a single ship was as high as 600 million US dollars, more than three times more expensive than the American Aegis class.
However, this is also in line with the consistent tradition of India's military industry, "slow work produces meticulous work". After all, compared with the famous Arjun tank and Tejas fighter, the Kolkata class is already "god speed".
For example, India's Arjun tank, after the 1971 India-Pakistan conflict, because the military was dissatisfied with the old tank, so in 1972, India proposed to develop its own advanced new tank. Named "Arjun".
In fact, the Indian government approved the Arjun tank project in March 1974, but under the tradition of "slow work and meticulous work", it dragged on for several years, and after learning the news of the start of production of Germany's latest Leopard 2 tank, India was finally anxious, and asked to speed up the pace at the same time, but also required their new tank performance to comprehensively surpass the Leopard 2.
However, the prototype, originally planned for completion in December 1983, was seriously behind due to technical difficulties and the actual progress was not used for military tests until 1996, but a large number of problems were found after testing. Despite this, the Government of India continues to allocate funds. And invited the German Leopard 2 tank production company to come to help. In this way, on August 7, 2004, the Arjun tank was finally officially put into production. The unit price per tank has risen from $3.6 million to $4.7 million.
But even so, the Indian Arjun tank was plagued by problems such as bulkiness and multiple blow-ups, and eventually 124 Arjun tanks were equipped after decades of delay. By May 2015, nearly 80% were out of service.
Let's look at the Tejas fighter, in the early 80s of the 20th century, as India's level of science and technology improved significantly, they began to plan to build their own, supersonic third-generation fighter, named "Tejas ". And the Indian Air Force also proposed that its combat capabilities must be superior to those of the American F-20.
As a result, the Tejas development project was proposed in 1983, and the initial design was not completed until 1990. However, due to the limited level of domestic technology, the development work has progressed slowly. It was not until December 20, 2013, after a cost of $675 million, that the Tejas initially reached combat use.
But it didn't take long for them to find about 100 more defects in subsequent tests, and after some modifications, India's first Tejas that met the standards was delivered to the military in March 2020. However, because the project was established for too long, after the Tejas officially entered service, the fourth-generation aircraft and fifth-generation aircraft of India's neighboring countries began to enter service, which also represents the dilemma that the Tejas fighter is outdated when it is in service.
Compared with Arjun and Tejour, the Kolkata class immediately became India's "big power heavy weapon" after entering service in 2014, according to data, the Kolkata-class destroyer, with a displacement of 7,500 tons, a length of 163 meters, a width of 17.4 meters, equipped with international mainstream radar systems, can independently complete air defense, anti-ship, anti-submarine, anti-missile, patrol and other combat tasks.
On paper, the Kolkata-class destroyer does perform well, so the Indian media believes that the Kolkata-class destroyer is not inferior to similar products in neighboring countries, and can be called India's homegrown "Asia's strongest ship"!
At this time, Indian politics entered the Modi era, and Modi after becoming prime minister, put forward the slogan of "Made in India", the most important is the national defense industry, auto parts, and software and other industries, under the promotion of Modi, the Indian military industry also reflects "Made in India", so at the launching ceremony of the Kolkata-class destroyer, Modi excitedly announced: The Kolkata is completely made in India, which is the representative of India's technological strength, and it is a signal sent by India to the world!
However, ironically, although the Kolkata-class destroyers are nominally advertised as India's own production, a closer look will reveal that in addition to the hull of the ship, other important components are almost "made in all nations".
For example, the gas turbine responsible for the ship's power is made in Ukraine; The diesel engine is manufactured by a British company; The generator set responsible for the power supply of the ship is made in Denmark; The Indian Navy's proud radar systems are produced by Israeli and Dutch companies; The navigation system is British-made; Towed sonar is a German product.
Let's look at the armament of the ships again, the 76mm naval gun was produced in Italy; Carrier-based helicopters belong to Russia; The only ones India has involved are the eight-mounted vertical launch system jointly developed by them and Russia, and the Barak-8 anti-aircraft missile jointly developed with Israel.
To sum up, with the blessing of science and technology from 8 countries, it is really too much to insist that the Kolkata-class destroyers are of pure Indian descent. However, this also explains the reason why the Indian destroyer has not been completed for more than ten years. After all, with weapons products from so many countries and different types and systems, I am afraid that it will not be possible to integrate these together and achieve compatibility in a few years.
If these are still minor problems, there is still a serious problem with this Kolkata-class destroyer, which is known as the strongest in Asia, which is the "Barak-8" air defense missile jointly developed by India and Israel.
In 2000, the layout of the Kolkata-class destroyers was basically finalized. Not only has a new stealth shell design been introduced, but it is also planned to place all missiles in the vertical launch system. But the problem is, although their idea is good, in 2003, when the construction of the warship's hull began, the progress of the Barak anti-aircraft missile was not yet clear.
Under pressure, the Kolkata class finally entered service on August 16, 2014, but the most important anti-aircraft missile on board has not yet been produced. That is, the Kolkata-class will still need to "run naked" for some time with ships and no bombs.
Finally, on December 29, 2015, the Kolkata completed the installation of the Barak anti-aircraft missile. However, after the installation of the anti-aircraft missiles, which they had been thinking about day and night, the Indians could not be happy.
Barak-8, a missile jointly developed by India and Israel, has a range of 70 kilometers, a height of 16 kilometers, and uses a data link and an active radar guidance system, which sounds okay, but the problem is that the maximum speed of the Barak-8 is only 2 times the speed of sound! That is, Mach 2.
Here is an example for comparison, the standard II missile made in the United States is Mach 3.5, and the Aster 30 produced in France and Italy is Mach 4.5, not to mention how bad the speed of Barak-8 is compared with these missiles more than ten years ago, that is, compared with some fighters, he has a certain gap, such as the Su-30MKK maximum speed Mach 2, the J-8 maximum speed Mach 2.2, F22 maximum speed Mach 2.2, that is, as long as these fighters are full horsepower, Barak-8 can not catch up.
But the question is, as a missile specialized in air defense, even aircraft and other missiles cannot catch up, isn't this useless? As a destroyer that has been developed for more than ten years and claims to be the first in Asia, such weapons and equipment are obviously unsatisfactory.
In any case, the Kolkata-class destroyers are considered to be in service after a lot of hardships, but the original planned construction of 7 ships, only 3 have been completed, but after the Indian military has repeatedly changed the design plan, after more than a decade of tossing, these 3 alone cost India $19.1 billion, and the cost of a single ship is comparable to a conventionally powered aircraft carrier.
Sadder is that the Kolkata-class destroyers could have been called the first in Asia. However, because the pace of Kolkata construction was so slow, it took a full 20 years from the start of construction to the commission, and by the time he was launched, the first place in Asia was firmly occupied by his neighbors.
Because the construction time is too long, the Kolkata-class destroyer, in today's rapid military science and technology, is really not much advantage, and at the same time, for the Indian Navy's consistent ambitions, this destroyer has become increasingly unable to meet the demand, so India is also currently working on the development of a new generation of destroyers.
I hope that this time they will step up their efforts and stop "grinding one ship in ten years".