How big is the problem?
Close to 34 warships of Indian Navy use the gas turbines from Ukraine's Zorya as their primary source of propulsion. These ships range include Veer class missile corvettes, surviving Rajput class destroyers, Delhi Class destroyers, Talwar Class frigates and newly commissioned Visakhapatnam class destroyers. Four more frigates of Russian-design is under construction at shipyards in Russia and Goa, also use engines from the Zorya facility. To power all these warships, Indian Navy needs more than 130 marine gas turbine engines and few spare turbines. Besides, Navy is also going to face problem in overhauling or regular maintenance of these engines. Usually, a gas turbine is overhauled after running for close to 30,000 hours.
BHEL & Zorya Mashproekt agreement
This process is also very challenging as Indian needs to send the turbine back to Ukraine for maintenance. To overcome this problem, A Cooperation Agreement was signed between BHEL and Zorya Mashproekt, Ukraine at New Delhi on 16th November'2021. The Agreement aimed to cooperate for establishing the local manufacture of the Marine GTs and RGs for requirement of the Indian Navy. Additionally, the cooperation agreement aims for BHEL and Zorya-Mashproekt to support the Indian Navy in maintenance as well as repair of Marine GTs and RGs. In the lights of the on-going conflict between Russia & Ukraine the future of this agreement is also grey.
Now since we know how serious is this problem, let’s try to understand the options Indian Navy has assuming that Zorya would not be able to cater the maintenance, overhaul and supply of spares for Indian Navy’s warship. There are four options that Indian Navy can work it out as a backup which we will be discussing in detail.
NPO Saturn Marine Engine
Russia was also under similar situation following the 2014 Crimean crisis. The Ukrainian industry refused to supply Russia with military technology. As a result, NPO Saturn was commissioned to design indigenous engines for the Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates. Indian Navy can also go ahead with the marine engine developed by NPO Saturn.
LM2500 marine gas turbine
After the Ukrainian engine, Indian Navy heavily relies on the General Electric (GE) LM2500 marine gas turbine. The engine is integrated with indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, 3 Shivalik-class frigates, 7 stealth frigates being built under Project 17A. HAL is already assembling and testing these engines for Project 17A in Bengaluru, under license from GE. The turbine overhaul centres would be set up in Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam Mumbai for these engines. This could be second option for Indian Navy.
Rolls Royce MT30 ENGINES
On May 2021, HAL has signed MOU with UK’s ROLLS ROYCE for MT30 ENGINES. Under this Memorandum of UNDERSTANDING, HAL will provide PACKAGING, SUPPORT, MARKETING and SERVICE SUPPORT for MT30 ENGINES. MT30 ENGINE is one of the latest marine ENGINES of ROLLS ROYCE which will be used in FUTURE VESSELS, AIRCRAFT CARRIERS, FRIGATES or DESTROYERS of INDIA NAVY. MT30 is the World's "Most Power-dense, Best-in-Class" Naval Gas Turbine currently in service with various Naval-programmes Worldwide across 7 different types of Ships. This could be third option for Indian Navy
DRDO’s Kaveri Marine Gas Turbine
As we have discussed on multiple occasion that the Kaveri engine’s core is quite stable. DRDO has used the core of the Kaveri engine to generate power of 12MW which may not be sufficient to power bigger warships but can power small vessels in the class with displacement upto 2500tons. However, these engines have failed in the trials conducted by Indian Navy to maintain the power output over longer distances and achieve required endurance. It won’t be an easy path to mature the Kaveri Marine engine and could be a long way to go and may even require the help from foreign OEMs. But this is much required strategic approach to achieve the self-sufficiency in defense.==========WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN=============
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