{"id":131629,"date":"2026-11-02T13:35:53","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T08:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=131629"},"modified":"2026-11-02T14:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:12:20","slug":"project-18a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/project-18a\/","title":{"rendered":"Project 18A: India Moves Ahead with \u20b980,000 Crore Next-Generation Stealth Destroyers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Project 18A Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence, has recently accorded in-principle approval to the futuristic warships under Project 18A. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Project 18A<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>Indian Navy\u2019s Next-Generation Destroyer (NGD) programme.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposed programme, estimated to cost around \u20b980,000 crore, aims to develop a new generation of <\/span><b>stealth-guided missile destroyers.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conceived as a <\/span><b>successor to the Visakhapatnam-class (P-15B) destroyers,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the P-18 class destroyers are engineered to counter emerging threats \u2014 from anti-ship ballistic missiles to submarine warfare.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>overseen <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by the<\/span><b> Indian Navy\u2019s Warship Design Bureau (WDB) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in collaboration with <\/span><b>Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>Garden Reach Shipbuilders &amp; Engineers (GRSE).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Project 18A <\/b><b>Features<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With an estimated <\/span><b>displacement exceeding 13,000 tonnes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the P-18 will rank among the <\/span><b>largest destroyers ever operated by the Indian Navy, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0significantly larger than the Visakhapatnam-class destroyers (7,400 tonnes).<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under<\/span><b> international classification, warships above 10,000 tonnes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> fall into the <\/span><b>cruiser category<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 a segment that India currently does not possess.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Project 18 will mark <\/span><b>India\u2019s entry into this class<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of warships.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The warships are expected to have nearly <\/span><b>75% indigenous content.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It features <\/span><b>Integrated Electric Propulsion (IEP).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Cruising Range:<\/b> <b>4,500 nautical miles <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">at 18 knots; endurance <\/span><b>45+ days.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the most notable features of the design is the planned incorporation of up to <\/span><b>144 vertical launch system (VLS) cells<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> capable of <\/span><b>firing a diverse range of missile <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">systems, including\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the long-range B<\/span><b>rahMos-NG (Next Generation) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">supersonic cruise missiles for anti-ship and land-attack roles,\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>Barak-8 ER (Extended Range) surface-to-air missiles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with intercept capabilities beyond 150 km;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the <\/span><b>upcoming LR-LACM (Long Range Land Attack <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/cruise-missile-vs-ballistic-missile\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cruise Missile<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For terminal defence, the ships will deploy four 30-mm rapid-fire CIWS and at least one high-energy laser-based directed-energy weapon for defeating UAV swarms and supersonic sea-skimming missiles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities include <\/span><b>twin triple-torpedo launchers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(<\/span><b>Varunastra heavy torpedoes),<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> rocket-assisted ASW mortars, and advanced towed-array sonar systems.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, a <\/span><b>127-mm\/62 caliber main gun<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (likely the Oto Melara or indigenous upgrade) provides naval gunfire support.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ships will be able to <\/span><b>carry unmanned underwater vehicles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>kamikaze drone<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s, used for surveillance, detecting mines, and attacking submarines.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also expected to feature an advanced sensor and<\/span><b> radar architecture centred on long-range multi-domain tracking systems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> capable of <\/span><b>detecting <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and tracking <\/span><b>targets<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at distances of up to <\/span><b>500 kilometres.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stealth enhancement<\/span><b>s<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> include an enclosed X-shaped mast, radar-absorbent materials, optimized hull form, and infrared signature suppression (IRSS) for exhaust systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/india-plans-next-generation-stealth-destroyers-to-counter-growing-maritime-threats\/article71653440.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>TH<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Defence Acquisition Council has reportedly granted in-principle approval for Project 18A, the Indian Navy&#8217;s proposed \u20b980,000 crore Next-Generation Destroyer programme. Designed to succeed the Visakhapatnam-class warships, these advanced stealth destroyers are expected to displace over 13,000 tonnes and feature integrated electric propulsion, up to 144 vertical missile launch cells, advanced radar systems and approximately 75% indigenous content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":131657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,11298,22,23],"class_list":["post-131629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-project-18a","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131629"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131701,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131629\/revisions\/131701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}