Sentinels of the seas: India is making offshore patrol vessels war-ready

Current generation of Coast Guard vessels, likely to be in service for several decades, remains under-armed

Last Tuesday, the Indian Coast Guard commissioned the eighth ship of an order of 11 Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) that Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) is constructing. Simultaneously, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is delivering another seven OPVs of the so-called Vikram class from its Kattupalli shipyard in Tamil Nadu.

These OPVs have two things in common. First, they are designed to patrol long distances, with endurances of 5,000-6,000 nautical miles (10-11,000 km). Second, for such large combat vessels — they are both about 100 metres long and displace over 2,000 tonnes — they are very lightly armed. Each carries just one 30-millimetre