Indian Navy opens NBC training facility

The Indian Navy has commissioned a nuclear, biological and chemical training facility (NBCTF), Abhedya, at INS Shivaji Naval station in Lonavla, Maharashtra, the Indian Ministry of Defence announced on 25 March.

The facility, constructed by Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) under a contract signed in March 2016, was handed over to the Indian Navy in September 2018.

The system includes a steel structure simulator built to represent the NBC compartment of a ship such as upper decks, citadels, cleansing stations and DCHQ. The upper deck compartment is equipped with live agents along with NBC equipment and detection and monitoring equipment. Trainees will have the opportunity to detect, monitor, survey and decontaminate the areas using actual NBC equipment, providing real time NBC scenarios.

Cmdr BB Nagpal, CMD, GSL, said: ‘The timely completion of this project is a reflection of the superior technical design and execution abilities of the Indian Navy and GSL. This unique facility will assist Indian Navy in providing realistic simulation of  nuclear, chemical and biological warfare to its personnel during their NBC damage control training, which till now was limited to theoretical training largely.’