Indian Navy receives first of new class of Mk IV LCUs

India's state-owned shipyard, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), delivered the first of a new class of eight in-house designed Mk IV Landing Craft Utility (LCU) vessels to the Indian Navy (IN) on 30 September.
According to the Indian Ministry of Defence, L-51 is expected to be commissioned "soon" at Port Blair: the Indian armed forces' triservice command that oversees India's Andaman and Nicobar island territories.  The delivery of L-51 took place 14 months later than the initially envisaged timeframe of July 2015.
 The ship's production began in September 2012. Keel-laying took place on 26 April 2013 followed by the ship's launching in March 2014 at GRSE's Rajabagan unit.  The 62.8 m-long, 1,001-tonne full-load-displacement Mk IV LCUs are built to American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) standards with an AH40 steel hull and a deckhouse of 5083-H112 aluminium alloy.  Their propulsion system comprises a twin shaft system with a pair of MTU 16V 4000 M53 diesel engines, each of which drive a Fundivisa-supplied fixed-pitch propeller through a Reintjes WAF 763 P reversible reduction gearbox.
Top speed is 15 kt while range is 1,500 nm at 12 kt. Larsen & Toubro supplied the integrated platform management system.  The vessels, which feature a hydraulic bow ramp, can carry 145 tonnes of military equipment in addition to 165 troops.  Their armament includes two 30 mm CRN-91 guns directed by a pair of Bharat Electronics (BEL)-supplied electro-optical directors on pedestals as well as Igla man-portable surface-to-air missiles.
 Other onboard systems include a MiniPOP surveillance system and BEL-supplied equipment, including a LINK II Mod 1 tactical datalink and a Sanket S passive electronic warfare system with ELK 7036 communications intelligence equipment.

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