DEFENSE NEWS

NEW DELHI — India — hoping to improve ties with Myanmar to counter the growing influence of China in the region — will help its neighbor build offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) and train the Myanmar troops at Indian military institutions.

The decision to build OPVs was reached Monday during talks between visiting Myanmar Navy chief Vice Adm. Thura Thet Swe and Indian Navy chief Adm. Devendra Kumar Joshi.

The Myanmar Navy chief also held talks with Indian Army chief Gen. Bikram Singh and Defence Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur.

The OPVs will be built at Indian shipyards and the training will be given to Myanmar Navy officers and sailors at Indian establishments. The Indian Defence Ministry refused to give details on the agreement, including which type of OPVs would be built, by whom and how many.

The Indian Defence Ministry is already considering a proposal by Myanmar to train their soldiers in variety of helicopters, including attack helicopters.

India has already supplied Myanmar with four Islander maritime patrol aircraft and naval gun boats.

India and Myanmar are also working on a road map on border management, a move seen by analysts here as an effort to check China’s entry into the Indian Ocean region.

China already has a military base on the Coco Islands, which are leased from Myanmar. The Coco Islands are close to India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Andaman Sea.

India's state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has secured a contract to supply a number of shipborne sensors to Myanmar, IHS Jane's understands.

A contract was signed in mid-January for the delivery of three sets of RAWL-02 Mk III L-band 2D search radars, which are licence-built versions of the Thales LW-08 radar, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) navigation radars, and a hull-mounted sonar system. The latter is likely to be the HUMSA system. These are to be fitted to frigates under construction in Myanmar.

Myanmar has a frigate construction programme under way at its naval dockyard in Yangon. The first of the 106 m-long frigates, UMS Aung Zeya (pennant number F11), is fitted with what appears to be an older variant of the RAWL. A second hull, with a stealthy superstructure, was launched in September 2012 as UMS Kyan-Sit-Thar (F12). The ship is undergoing outfitting, with completion slated for early 2014.

A third frigate is under construction at Sinmailik Naval Dockyard, Rangoon, according to Burmese sources. Its keel-laying ceremony took place on 5 September 2010, and hull framing was largely complete by February 2012. The BEL deal could mean a fourth frigate is on the way, and reports indicate eight frigates are planned.