INS Tabar (F44) (translates as "battle axe") is the third of the of the Indian Navy. The frigate was commissioned on 19 April 2004 in Kaliningrad, Russia with Captain (later Vice Admiral) Biswajit Dasgupta. The current Commanding Officer (CO) of INS Tabar is Captain Mahesh Mangipudi .
INS Tabar reached her home-port of Mumbai on 31 July 2004. Along with her sister ships ("sword" in Sanskrit) and ("trident" in Sanskrit), INS Tabar is assigned to Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command, head-quartered in Mumbai. INS Tabar is a well-equipped warship that has the ability to handle air/surface/sub-surface missions or defending herself operating either independently on maritime missions or supporting a larger naval task force.
In recent times, the ship has visited various ports of the Persian Gulf on a goodwill mission and the visit was highly successful. The ship also participated in the International Fleet Review at Visakhapatnam. It recently visited Port Louis to participate in the Mauritius National Day celebrations.
Design and performance
INS Tabar'''s 28 officers and 232 sailors living conditions are similar to those on the Royal Australian Navy's s. Fully loaded, INS Tabar has a displacement of 4,035 tons. The main engines of INS Tabar are the Zorya/Mashproekt M7N-1E gas turbine plant comprising two DS-71 cruise turbines (each rated up to 9,000 hp) and two DT-59 boost turbines. These power-plants move INS Tabar to . Her maximum range is at , while at the range lessens to . One downside for INS Tabar and her sister ships is the amount of smoke her engines produce.
Armament
The surface-to-air weapons systems include one single-rail MS-196 launcher that can launch the long range Shtil-1 (NATO: SA-17) surface-to-air missile. Eight Igla-1E (NATO: SA-16) portable air defence missiles are on board for short-range threats. INS Tabar became the third Indian warship to incorporate an eight cell KBSM 3S-14NE Vertical Launcher and was the first to upload the new Indian/Russian designed missile, the supersonic BrahMos PJ-10 ASCM (anti-sub/ship/surface cruise missile). INS Tabars VLS can launch the Indian designed 3M-54E Klub-N (NATO: SS-N-27) subsonic ASCM. INS Tabar has one A-190 (E) Dual Purpose Gun mount for surface and air targets. Its rate of fire is 60 rounds a minute at a range of .
Two Kashtan Air Defence Gun/Missile mounts are INS Tabars Close-In Weapons System (CIWS). The Kashtan CIWS has two GSh-30k Gatling guns per mount firing 5,000 rounds a minute, along with eight 9M-311 Grison missiles (NATO: SA-N-11) with a range of . There are 64 Grison reloads (32 each mount) with a package of four missile taking less than two minutes to load. Forward of INS Tabars bridge and aft of the VLS is one 12-round RBU-6000 anti-submarine warfare rocket launch that can fire either Splav-90R rockets or RGB-60 depth charges. Two pairs of fixed DTA-53 torpedo tubes are located port and starboard midships. Both can launch either SET-65E anti-sub and 53-65KE anti-ship torpedoes.
Sensors
Controlling this array of weapons is the Trebovaniye-M combat information and control system that can control all of INS Tabars weapons as well as using situation analysis to generate combat missions. The combat system can transmit data and process information from up to 250 sources. With a range of nearly , the Fregat M2EM (NATO: Top Plate) 3D radar is INS Tabars air/surface radar. The M2EM system features continuous scanned arrays along with providing targeting information for the Shtil-1 missile system. One 3Ts-25E Garpun-B radar unit is utilised for long-range surface search and target acquisition. INS Tabar is also equipped with two navigation radars. INS Tabars fire control is the Ratep JSC 5P-10E Puma fire control system. The Puma uses phased array and target tracking radar along with laser and TV devices. The Puma can operate autonomously with the ability of automatically detecting, locking on, and tracking four targets at once.
INS Tabars sonar is the BEL APSOH (Advanced Panoramic Sonar Hull) hull-mounted sonar. The APSOH sonar has active ranging, passive listening, and auto tracking of targets. For countermeasures INS Tabar includes chaff and infra-red decoy rounds fired by four KT-216 launchers. This ship was originally equipped with the Russian TK-25E-5 electronic warfare suite and was later replaced by the BEL manufactured Varuna ESM/Electronic warfare suite with its distinctive circular housing located above the Fregat radar.