MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti) - The last in a series of three frigates that Russia is building for India at the Yantar Shipyard in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad has completed contractor sea trials, a spokesman for the shipyard said on Friday.
Sergei Mikhailov said the trials of The Trikand frigate in the Baltic Sea began on February 5 and were completed on March 14.
“Within this period, the vessel carried out five voyages in the Baltic Sea, each lasting several days,” Mikhailov said.
The Trikand is currently at the Baltiisk port, preparing for state sea trials. It is scheduled to join the Indian Navy in the summer of 2013.
Russia and India signed a $1.6 billion contract on the construction of three modified Krivak III class (also known as Talwar class) guided missile frigates for India in 2006.
The first frigate, INS Teg, joined the Indian Navy on April 27, 2012, and the second, The Tarkash, arrived at the port of Mumbai in India on December 30, 2012.
The frigates are each armed with eight BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles.
They are also equipped with a 100-mm gun, a Shtil surface-to-air missile system, two Kashtan air-defense gun/missile systems, two twin 533-mm torpedo launchers and an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) helicopter.
