LPDs and MCMVs ahoy! India launches RfIs
In terms of large amphibious warfare ships, the Indian Navy only has the 12,000t INS Jalashwa (the former USS Trenton) in service. (PIB)
The Indian Navy (IN) issued an RfI on 24 August for four LPDs, resurrecting an earlier failed effort to acquire large amphibious assault ships. Another RfI was issued 11 days earlier in a desperate measure to plug a mine warfare capability gap.
Not unexpectedly, the LPD tender, which is more akin to an LHD, specifies that the quartet of ships must be built within India, although collaboration with a foreign partner is permissible. The first LPD is to be delivered within five years of contract signing, and ships will be handed over at yearly intervals after that.
The IN had
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