HMS Prince of Wales recently linked up with Indian warship INS Tabar in the latest phase of Operation Highmast, the Royal Navy’s flagship deployment of 2025.
Currently serving as the lead vessel in the UK’s Carrier Strike Group, HMS Prince of Wales is at the centre of an eight-month mission spanning from the Mediterranean to the western Pacific.
The deployment includes joint exercises with navies from over a dozen nations and is intended to strengthen defence ties and reaffirm Britain’s commitment to regional stability in the Indo-Pacific.
The Carrier Strike Group’s tasking also includes showcasing UK industry, supporting trade partnerships, and demonstrating military interoperability with key allies. Alongside the carrier, the task group includes Royal Navy destroyers and frigates, support vessels from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and international partners.
In total, over 4,500 British personnel are involved across the deployment. This includes approximately 2,500 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines, nearly 600 members of the Royal Air Force, and 900 soldiers from the British Army.
INS Tabar is a Talwar-class guided missile frigate built by the Baltiyskiy Zavod shipyard in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 19 April 2004 in Kaliningrad and currently operates under the Western Naval Command based in Mumbai. As of August 2024, the ship is commanded by Captain M.R. Harish.
Designed for multi-role operations, INS Tabar is equipped to conduct air defence, anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare. The ship displaces around 4,035 tonnes at full load, with a top speed of 30 knots and a range of nearly 5,000 nautical miles. It operates a combined gas-and-gas (COGAG) propulsion system and carries a complement of around 180 personnel.
The ship’s armament includes Shtil-1 and Igla surface-to-air missiles, Klub-class cruise missiles, a 100 mm naval gun, torpedo tubes, and a RBU-6000 rocket launcher for anti-submarine warfare. It also has advanced radar and electronic warfare systems and typically embarks a Ka-28 or HAL Dhruv helicopter for extended operations. The frigate has previously participated in regional port visits, international fleet reviews, and maritime security missions.
The rendezvous with INS Tabar occurred earlier this month, before the Carrier Strike Group departed Singapore. HMS Prince of Wales and her escorts left the port earlier this week to continue their deployment eastward through the Indo-Pacific.
It’s reassuring that it was built by the Russians considering how well there stuff has performed in Ukraine and Iran!
I hate to see a nation like I dia costing up to the Russians. and buying the rubbish that is for sale to them
It’s beyond me why anyone would waste money like India has on Russian warships.
The only navy in history to loose a battle to a country with no navy.
Good Morning James. Which battle was that?
Black Sea, It’s a Sea Battle involving the Russian Black Sea fleet and no navy assets from Ukraine, where the Russians have lost most of there ships and boats.
It’s been on the news and everything !
“I get that sinking feeling”.
Ah of course squire! Much of that action took place early in the conflict. Down here in the colonies we miss much of that news particularly if one is an old codger such as myself! The internet for me is the space between the goalposts where Geoff Hurst scored that dubious goal in 1966
😂
One of the most interesting bits of kit is the RBU-6000 rocket launcher for anti-submarine warfare.. now I think the west and most navies are still for some reason wilfully refusing to really look at the concept of attrition level sub surface threats from drones.. essentially still only having high end ASW effectors.. now this is really a bit silly as you are not going to want to waste your low numbers of high end effector designed to chase down and kill an SSN on a cheap sub surface drone…
Ok.
Given the water cushion effect – accuracy is absolutely key.
How accurate are Russian weapons?
Whilst UK could easily build a weapon that could land in a dustbin sized location the issue is what is it for?
If it is for ASW then it needs to carry at least a light torpedo – thing is that is quite large and heavy so if you take an Mk41 you don’t end up with huge amounts of propellant therefore range is limited.
So to make a proper VLASW weapon you end up with a really, really big lump.
You roughly raise the issue of UAV type subs and this is where the Kingfisher type weapon might be most useful -particularly if the munition is RASable unlike a VLS. Also keeps VLS capacity for things that have to be VLS.
Bring back the Limbo Launcher. 😊🙄
It does not need to be low tec to be cheap.. but if you are facing an attritional risk then you need a calibrated response that can manage that.. light weight torpedoes are not going to work if someone sends say waves of 6 cheap sub surface drones at your ships parked in the littoral. Unless the west starts thinking about that the littoral and enclosed waters become a death trap…
In 70’s 80’s a couple NATO ships had the 375mm Bofors ASW rocket
It’s more the concept of a cheap sub surface weapon to counter sub surface drones.. sub surface drones are going to be slow and fragile. They are not going to have pressure hulls to penetrate… but there may well be a lot of them.. king fisher would work well, but in all likelihood a light weight torpedo on a small ships flight will be the wrong weapon.. after all if your small ship flight has 2 light weight torpedos and they send a wave of attritional sub surface drones your in a no win situation.. unless you can manoeuvre away from the threat.. which is fine for a warship in the open sea not fine if your parked up in the littoral or protecting slow single screw vessels in enclosed seas.
No need to re-invent the wheel. Use WWII-era “HEDGEHOG.”
Certainly would stuff up those small pesky unmanned underwater drones, and give any wandering frogmen(people) a very bad day.
Who ever was responsible for designing this ship wants shooting.
Those two massive Islands are obscuring the view of all the Lightnings.
At least the Ford class with it’s single Island at the rear allows you to see the 80 plus aircraft all lined up in a menacing manner.
“Negative Ghostrider, the patern is closed”.
It’s very nice of the Indian government to escort our Carrier , now can we have our F35b back please 😀
Probably holding it as a bargaining chip for Starmer to hand over the Chagos so they can have the fishing rights. What a fool Starmer is; sorry politics.