Articles on warship design: coming up soon! - Broadsword by Ajai Shukla - Strategy. Economics. Defence.

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Saturday 12 April 2008

Articles on warship design: coming up soon!


Meanwhile... here's something to keep you occupied. INS Shankush being barged in for a refit to Mazagon Docks Limited, Mumbai

12 comments:

  1. I have not seen submarine photos with propellers being exposed. In your photos i can clearly see both Shalki's and Shankush's propellers are clearly exposed. They should have been covered, shouldn't they ?. Other wise i believe, they make good material for some analysts.

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  2. mahesh! you are observations are true. The blades,its shape, curvatures tell a whole lot of stories about the signatures it lets out to a predatory SONAR.
    should hae been covered!

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  3. no, nothing to hide. every1 knows the profile of these kilo class subs.
    look at this pic:
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Submarine_Kilo_class_Chinese.jpg

    full view of a chinese kilo class sub.

    i'm sure we'll not expose profile of our ATV.. coz its solely ours.

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  4. Anon@17:52,

    That photo shows no blades, buddy.

    Either way, it really cannot hurt to follow strict protocol in these matters.

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  5. Ankur, whats the big deal about showing the blades? is it something so secretive? every sub has it!
    its just like showing the lades of a chopper!
    What's our enemies gonna do by knowing how the blades look like?

    -Ja
    (earlier Anon@17:52)

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  6. land warriors look into sea...

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  7. hey when the heck is it gonna come mr. shukla? i was expecting it 2day!
    dont keep us waiting.

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  8. It is true that you can take a photograph of a set of propellor blades and, using computer simulation, model the accoustic signature of that set of blades.

    But the fact is that keeping our blades covered serves no purpose. Every Russian submarine has already been fingerprinted, by name. NATO boats have only to listen to a signature for 30 seconds and they'll tell you not just which class of submarine it it, but also which individual boat.

    So putting the blades into purdah would serve little purpose.

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  9. I would still recommend not displaying or fudging them. Journalists should not set protocol on sensitive military hardware. Hell, someone could just take a picture from the docks or pay one of the boaters to do the same but why make it easier for those who wish the country harm?

    No offense Ajai, but first the HAL picture where workers had no hardhats or steel toed boots on and now this...While I appreciate your excellent photography and the time you take to update your readers on defence matters, perhaps a little bit of discretion is advised. Sometimes i wonder if the forces have any sort of PR department to oversee such fundamental rules!

    As a (former?) officer of the armed forces, surely you would place a higher priority regarding the concerns of our men and women than snazzy pictures.

    Thank you for your services to this fine country.

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  10. Gaurav, I didn't set the protocol on transporting the submarine in the open... the Indian Navy did that. Even my mother doesn't believe that MDL and the navy ask me what security precautions they should observe for their warships.

    Also, there are lots of threats to the security of the country --- naxals, terrorist cells, religious bigotry, the caste system --- to name just a few of them. But I wouldn't add to that list a photograph of HAL workers without... GODDAM, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS... HARD HATS AND STEEL TIPPED BOOTS!!

    India has a pretty poor record on security. And one of the prime reasons is people who are not quite clear on what to keep secret... so they go with the premise that everything should be kept secret... and end up with the result that nothing actually ends up secret.

    You "wonder whether the forces have any sort of PR department to oversee such fundamental rules!". Which rules? The ones you made??

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  11. Thanks Ajai,

    Shouldn't have included the hard hats and the sub in the same sentence. :D

    But I will still give a thumbs down to HAL guys minus safety equipment and that damn propeller!

    I guess in a sense you'd be right, the fact that GoI still hasn't deemed the Indian public "capable" enough of handling the facts of Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report even though accounts float around on the net (ahem BR)shows the paranoia with which defense issues are handled.

    Keep up the fantastic work
    -Gaurav

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  12. My dear Ajay you are right indian is poor in hiding something which we need to hide .but who is fault it is? our concern authority
    how many time you travel on metro in delhi did you ever notice CISF checking procedure.it is total faulty They too careless to do the job.
    So the Elite once too but one are is good that Is our Netas security.
    one thing is sure if every one protecting his ass than why we are?

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