Spain offers India advanced ship building technology

Spain is offering to build ships and submarines for the Indian Navy in India with transfer of technology.
The Indian Navy, which is expanding with the acquisition of large ships like aircraft carriers, would need supply ships like the Cantabria, which is on a year-long voyage to display its technology and utility.
The double-hulled 19,500-ton Cantabria, designated a combat supply ship (CSC), is a well-designed and capable vessel with place for two large or three medium helicopters, 24×7 sensors and self-defence guns, 8,000 cubic meters of ship fuel, 2,000 cubic metres of jet fuel, 200 tons of fresh water and a range of 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km). It can simultaneously refuel three ships.
The Spanish submarines, designated S-80, are using an innovative AIP system to charge fuel cells, similar to those in the US space shuttle programme.
Cantabria’s commanding officer, pointed out that his ship had left La Grana naval port on January 3 for 11 months’ deployment with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and will return home on December 21, spending 200 days of the period in the water. That itself demonstrates the capability of the ship.
The US Navy, which has the world’s largest ships in its aircraft carriers, generally deploys vessels for about six months at a time, Nieto observed, pointing out that Cantabria could comfortably sustain a mission of about one year.
Cantabria is totally computerized, and the captain can manage all its operations with one laptop from anywhere on the vessel by hooking onto its two main computers on the bridge. Every single door or cranes can be operated in real time.
Senior officers of the Indian Navy and industry were invited to witness the technology aboard the Cantabria.
Navantia has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which is already working with the Indian Navy in heavy engineering and has built parts of the indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant and fast attack craft (FAC). Navantia and L&T are working jointly on building four LPDs like INS Jalashwa for amphibious military operations and disaster relief for the Indian Navy.
freepressjournal