Solas Marine fast interceptor boats (FIC) are vessels being built for the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

by a shipyard located along the Hamilton Canal at

Wattala Wattala (, ) is a large suburb of Gampaha district , in Western Province, Sri Lanka, situated around 9 km from Colombo city centre. This suburb is situated on A3 highway from Colombo to Negombo. Around Wattala, there are many villages and t ...

, near

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

, owned by Solas Marine Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. Solas Marine Lanka (Pvt) Ltd is part of

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

-based Solas Marine Services Group.

Development history

The

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n ministry of defence (MOD) on 22 May 2009 sent out request for proposal (RfP) to 43 shipyards in India and other countries for 80 FICs. After the bids were submitted by the contenders, they were evaluated by the technical evaluation committee (TEC). Thereafter

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

n shipyard Solas Marine was shortlisted for supply of the 80 boats. A deal worth for the same was signed in the last week of September 2011. As per the agreement, the 80 boats were to be supplied in batches of 15 and the induction of first batch was to take place within 36 months from the signing of the contract.

Description

The Solas Marine interceptor boats are long boats with beam of and have draught of . They have deep–vee chine hull form with sharp water entry to ensure a soft ride in adverse sea states. The Vacuum infusion process have been used to build hull, which ensure significant strength gains, intrinsic to the technology. The vessels have excellent sea-keeping and dynamic stability capability at high speed in sea state 3 and is sea worthy up to sea state 4. The craft's model has been tested at Wolfson, UK. The upper deck canopy of each vessel is bullet proof and has air conditioned crew area to meet all crew comfort and safety measures. They are water-jet propelled with top speed of and have endurance of at . They are also fitted with night vision devices, communication equipment, automatic identification system (AIS) and radar, besides carrying a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), a sonic weapon used for scaring pirates away. The vessels carry a crew of 4 and can carry a variety of armament from Heavy Machine Guns to Grenade Launchers. They are intended for intercepting suspicious boats for inspection and verification.

Deployment

Out of 80 boats, 31 are based in

Western Naval Command The Western Naval Command is one of the three command–level formations of the Indian Navy. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. As the senior–most of the three formations, the command is responsible for the all naval forces in the A ...

, 16 in Southern Naval Command, 33 in

Eastern Naval Command The Eastern Naval Command is one of the three command-level formations of the Indian Navy. It is headquartered in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The command is responsible for the all naval forces in the Bay of Bengal and parts of the Indian Ocea ...

. They are in services with navy's Sagar Prahari Bal for guarding naval assets and strategic installations from seaborne threats, harbour defence (primarily, protection of vessels inside the harbour area), and patrolling the seafront with state marine police forces. In 2022, two Solas Marine-class boats were transferred from Indian Navy to Mozambique Navy on board . Mozambique Navy personnel were given training to operate the new interceptor boats. On 8 November 2024, transferred another 2 fast interceptor crafts of the class to the Mozambique Navy.

Delivery

The FICs were to be delivered in batches, with each batch consisting of 04 FICs. As of January 2013, the first batch of FICs were undergoing trials in

. The delivery of the initial batch of FICs was scheduled for December 2012 and the following batch in April 2013. This was delayed at the manufacturer's end, pushing the delivery schedule by a few months. As of March 2013 first bath of four craft were delivered to southern command which were inducted by it on 20 March 2013 and Southern Naval Command was also scheduled to receive 12 more of these craft in the coming months. The FIC's were to be deployed in Ezhimala and in the islands of Kavaratti, Minicoy, and Androth. As of 2017, all 20 batches have been delivered by the Shipyard with the last batch's delivery on 28 March 2017 against original schedule of 02 April 2017.

Citations

References

External links

{{externalimage, topic=Solas Marine fast interceptor boat , float=width=200px , image
T-403 Front side view
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T-403 Rear side View
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Indian navy to acquire 80 interceptor boats from Sri LankaNavy to beef up surveillance with new interceptor craft Pics of Solas Marine Lanka Fast Interception Craft for Indian NavyBoats for Indian navy undergo sea trials off Colombo
Patrol vessels of the Indian Navy Patrol boat classes Ships built in Sri Lanka Military boats Maritime security of India