Kochi / New Delhi, Oct 30 (FN Representative) In recognition of its capability to build highly-specialised vessels, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd on Tuesday signed a contract worth Rs 490.98 crore with the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) for construction of an Acoustic Research Ship (ARS). NPOL is a laboratory under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the signing of the contract added yet another feather to GRSE’s well-adorned cap, a statement said. The contract was signed in Kochi by Cdr Shantanu Bose, IN (retired), director (Shipbuilding), GRSE, and Sijo N Lukose, Sc-G, Group director (Material Management), NPOL, in the presence of senior officials from GRSE & NPOL. The ARS will be capable of speeds ranging from 4 knots to 12 knots. At top speed, the ship will have an endurance of 30 days or 4,500 nautical miles in a single mission. It will have a complement of 70 personnel.
The capabilities of the ARS will include deployment, towing and retrieval of various equipment such as acoustic modules, carrying out temporal and/or spatial high-resolution surveys of sound velocity profiles and collection of ocean tides or current information to be used for survey optimization, design of underwater moorings and offshore deployments. The research vessel will also carry out meteorological surveys to understand the influence of atmospheric parameters in sound propagation studies and undertake shallow water acoustic reverberation studies. It will also be capable of launching, mooring and maintaining standalone buoys and collecting data from them. Its wide speed range will allow the ship to operate at multiple speed regimes to carry out acoustic systems trials, while maintaining silence.