One of the senior officers onboard the Royal Navy’s latest destroyer warship HMS Daring that arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday said that as India has started indigenous Navy shipbuilding and if the industry is able to cater to their demands, they would start asking India to build their warships.
Speaking about the UK government’s willingness to have their warships built in India, another senior official said that as India has already started their indigenisation programme, if the government feels that the Indian markets can cater to the Royal Navy’s demands, then definitely one can see British warships being constructed in India. Currently, Royal Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth is under construction, and is likely to get commissioned in 2016.
“Even South Korea makes our warships. Hence, it is not the case that all our requirements are taken care of within UK,” said Dr Glen Kelly, head of defence sales organisation.
Dr Kelly further spoke about the UK government’s decision to downsize the Royal Navy’s fleet. He said that due to economic slowdown, the government felt that the expenditure in defence budget should be cut down. Hence, instead of having a larger fleet size, UK should go for smaller fleets, but with more capacity to strike.