L 20 Magar Class Landing Ship Tank - Large (LST-L)
Based on the Sir Lancelot design, these Landing Ship Tank - Large (LST-L) are built at Hindustan SY but fitted at the Garden Reach DY. In fact, GRSE is the only shipyard in India which specialises in designing and building amphibian LST(L) ships for the Indian Navy.
The INS Gharial is one of the largest ships in the Indian Navy, a mammoth Landing Ship Tank - Large (LST-L), capable of carrying two helicopters, one in hangar and one on deck, 10 Vijayanta tanks in her underbelly, and four Landing Craft - Assault (LCA) slung aloft. She is also armed with guns and rocket launchers, which are used to "soften up" a hostile beach before the tanks go in and the LCAs charge in with assault troops.
Reportedly a third of the class with some major design changes was laid down in July 1996, but this was not initially confirmed from reliable sources. Some sources had speculated that completion might take as much as 1 or 2 years. In December 2001, a letter of intent for construction of three LST(L) Shardul landing ship tanks (large), to a modified design, was placed on the Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE) shipyard.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Displacement | Full - 5655 |
| Length | 120 m |
| Beam | 17.5 m |
| Draft | 4 m |
| Speed | 15 kts |
| Armament | 4 x 40 mm Bofors 2 multi barrel rocket launchers |
| Aircraft | 1 x Sea King 42C (Platform for 2) |
| Crew | 16 (Officers) 120 (Enlisted) |
| Ships | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | # | Port | Builder | Ordered | Comm | Decomm | ||
| Magar | L 20 | Hindustan + GRSE | 15 Jul 87 | |||||
| Gharial | L 23 | Hindustan + GRSE | Dec 93 | 14 Feb 1997 | ||||
| Hindustan + GRSE | July 1996?? | RUMOR | ||||||
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