''Aadesh''-class patrol vessels are a series of twenty fast

patrol vessel A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and they ...

s (FPVs) built for the

Indian Coast Guard The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is a maritime law enforcement and search and rescue agency of India with jurisdiction over its territorial waters including its contiguous zone and Exclusive economic zone of India, exclusive economic zone. It was st ...

Cochin Shipyard Limited Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) is the largest shipbuilding and maintenance facility in India. Cochin Shipyard is part of a line of maritime-related facilities in the port-city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, India. The shipyard builds platform sup ...

at its shipyard in

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. The ships have been designed by M/s Smart Engineering & Design Solutions (SEDS), Kochi.

Design

''Aadesh''-class vessels have a length of , a beam of , and a draught of with a design speed of over . They are powered by

Rolls-Royce Power Systems Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG (formerly Tognum AG) is a German company owned by Rolls-Royce Holdings with holdings in engine manufacturing brands and facilities. The company previously traded, from 2006 to 2014, as Tognum AG. Prior to 2006, the ...

-supplied triple type 16V 4000 M90 engines with an output of at 2,100 rpm, coupled with ZF 7600 gearboxes and propelled by triple

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

Kamewa AB Karlstads Mekaniska Werkstad (''trans.'' Karlstad Mechanical Works Ltd), known as Kamewa, was a Swedish manufacturing company in the city of Kristinehamn. Kamewa started as a brand name of the controllable-pitch propellers manufactured by KM ...

71S3NP water jets. This enables the vessels to operate in shallow waters and offers higher speeds and better maneuverability than conventional propellers. The MTU 'Callosum' ship automation system monitors the ship's services that also incorporates fire detection and extinguishing systems. The navigation package was supplied by Northrop Grumman and includes multi-function displays, electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS), autopilot, magnetic compass, and the NAVIGAT 3000

fiberoptic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

gyrocompass A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical Direction (geometry), direction automaticall ...

. The vessels are equipped with a long-range gun and modern vessel control, navigation, and communication tools. They are capable of seven days' continuous deployment at sea without replenishing supplies. These FPVs are small in size when compared to other large vessels that Cochin Shipyard has built. Extensive use of aluminum in the superstructure was made to reduce weight, and Cochin Shipyard has developed special techniques to ensure high-quality welding and fabrication of aluminum structures. All the vessels delivered achieved speeds in excess of the contracted speed during sea trials and surpassed the expectations of the Indian Coast Guard with regard to the performance requirements. The primary roles of the vessel include fisheries protection and monitoring, patrol within India's

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

, coastal patrol, anti-smuggling, anti-piracy, and search and rescue operations. The vessels also have a secondary role of providing communication link and escorting convoys during hostilities and wartime.

Construction

''Aadesh'', the first vessel of the series, was launched on 9 January 2013 by Jayasree Muralidharan, in the presence of her husband, Vice Admiral M P Muralidharan, Director General of the Indian Coast Guard. ''Aadesh'' was delivered to the Coast Guard after successful completion of all its trials on 25 September 2013. It has been operated from the Coast Guard station at

Tuticorin Thoothukudi (formerly called Tuticorin) is a port industrial city in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The city is capital and headquarters of the district. ...

in Tamil Nadu. The second vessel, named ''Abheek'', was launched by on 21 March 2013. For the launch, the FPV was placed on specially designed cradles and transported over the entire length of the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier that was located at the building dock before being lowered into the waters. The third vessel, ''Abhinav'', was launched on 28 May 2013. The fourth vessel, ''Abhiraj'', was launched on 30 September 2013 and was expected to join the Tuticorin ICG station. The fifth and sixth fast patrol vessels were launched on 2 December 2013 and were named ''Achook'' and ''Agrim'' in the launching ceremony. ''Achook'' was handed over to the Coast Guard on 28 March 2014.

Operational history

On 4 April 2024, ICGS ''Amogh'' responded quickly to save the lives of 27 Bangladeshi fishermen who were stranded at sea on their fishing boat. On 4 April at approximately 11:30 a.m., crew aboard ''Amogh'' spotted the Bangladeshi fishing boat ''Sagar II'' drifting inside Indian seas while on patrol near the Indo-Bangladesh International Maritime Border Line (IMBL). The ICG ship dispatched a boarding team to look into it. It was discovered that the boat suffered a steering gear malfunction. There were 27 crew members and fisherman aboard ''Sagar II''. The Coast Guard technical team, after an inspection, concluded the "completely damaged"

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

could not be repaired mid-sea. Meanwhile, the

Bangladesh Coast Guard The Bangladesh Coast Guard (; BCG) is the maritime law enforcement force of Bangladesh. It is a paramilitary force which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Its officers and sailors are transferred from the Bangladesh ...

(BCG) was notified about the situation and the response plan by the Indian Coast Guard Regional Headquarters in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. The BCG dispatched BCGS ''Kamaruzzaman'' to tow ''Sagar II''. At around 18:45 the same day, ''Kamaruzzaman'' approached the IMBL. The 27 Bangladeshi fishermen and their boat were turned over to ''Kamaruzzaman'' by ''Amogh''. On 17 July 2024, the Indian Coast Guard carried out a rescue operation of the Indian fishing boat ''Aashni''. The boat with 11 crew and around from Kochi, Kerala, faced heavy rain and challenging weather conditions. Due to loss of propulsion and flooding from a hull rupture close to the

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

, the vessel was in a serious situation. A

Dornier 228 The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. 245 were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 1983, Hindustan Aeronautics ...

surveillance aircraft of the ICG located the IFB on the night of 16 July 2024. ICGS ''Saksham'', a , was immediately diverted towards its location after receiving an order from the ICG District Headquarters No 4 (Kerala & Mahe). Eventually, ICGS ''Abhinav'', an ''Aadesh''-class patrol vessel, was also deployed along with a

HAL Dhruv The HAL Dhruv () is a utility helicopter designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in November 1984. The helicopter first flew in 1992; its development was prolonged due to multiple factors including the Indian Army's requ ...

. The technical team from the ICG assisted in the de-flooding operations and rescued the crew members and recovered the distressed vessel. After the culmination of the operation, the boat was handed over to the Fisheries Department. On 25 August 2024, the ICG rescued 11 crew members from the sinking merchant vessel MV ''ITT Puma''. The ship was travelling from Kolkata to

Port Blair Port Blair (), officially named Sri Vijaya Puram, is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headqu ...

when it sank south of

Sagar Island Sagar Island is an island in the Ganges delta, lying on the Continental Shelf, continental shelf of Bay of Bengal about 100 km (54 nautical miles) south of Kolkata. This island forms the Sagar (community development block), Sagar CD Block ...

due to adverse weather and sea environment. The search and rescue operation was conducted in coordination by ''Amogh'', ICGS ''Sarang'' (a ) and an ICG Dornier 228 aircraft. On 18 November 2024, ICGS ''Agrim'' rescued seven fishermen, whose boat fishing boat ''Kal Bhairav'' had been damaged and sank near the maritime boundary between India and Pakistan. The crew of the fishing boat had been interned aboard the

Pakistan Maritime Security Agency The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (reporting name: PMSA) () is a branch of the Pakistan Navy. It is a Navy-managed and Navy-controlled Law enforcement in Pakistan, Marine law enforcement agency whose mission is to provide protection to Pakis ...

vessel PMSS ''Nusrat''. After ''Agrim'' intercepted ''Nusrat'', an agreement was reached to turn over the crew of ''Kal Bhairav'' to the Indian Coast Guard. ''Agrim'' returned to Okha Port and all fishermen were reported to be in good health conditions.

Ships in class

References

External links