February 2020- TDV undergoes basin trials-

January 2020 - TDV is either a missile tracking ship or a naval radar testbed - With Vikrant getting all the attention, the TDV was conveniently ignored. I received these pics today and I was surprised to see a weird structure (pointed by a red arrow) on the TDV. It's clearly a support structure of a radar array i.e. this is where the antenna of a radar goes. It's significantly larger than the two similar structures present on the Vikrant, also visible in both pictures. While it's clear that it's a radar ship, the presence of A-frame indicates that this ship could be stationed downrange to assist debris recovery. Dr.Y.Srinivasa Rao is the project director of 'Ship No. 20', he is scientist-G at Research Centre Immarath, DRDO, Hyderabad. He is also associated with Program-AD (PGAD) i.e. Indian BMD.

Its sensor package also includes a bow-mounted sonar housed in a 5-meter composite dome, odd.

TDV - DRDO Missile Tracking Ship We can now confirm that the TDV is going to house the LR-MFR (Long Range Multifunction Radar), a dual-panel long-range active phased array radar LR-MFR was first revealed back in 2018 (Thanks to Manish Singh @DFI for pointing it out)

April 2019

DRDO Technology Demonstrator Vessel (TDV) - Cochin Shipyard Ltd.





Fast forward to 2018 TDV has been launched. Launching ceremony took place most likely sometime around February-March

Technology Demonstration Vessel 2 July 2018 ( Image courtesy: Rising Kochi/That's Kochi)



The ship is slightly larger than a Kamorta class corvette, both ships are almost the same in length but TDV is much wider. The ship doesn't appear to be a missile tracking vessel at first glance. VC-11184 was fitted with radomes right after it was launched. Another counterpoint is that when DRDO already has a larger and more capable missile tracking ship what are they demonstrating technology for?

TDV has also been dubbed as Hi-Tech Vessel (and ship number 20). Dr .Y.Srinivasa Rao is the project director of 'Ship No. 20', he is scientist-G at Research Centre Immarath , DRDO, Hyderabad. It is too early to speculate what will be the actual function of TDV. There is an empty space right above the bridge, that's probably where the missile tracking radar/sensors would be mounted (if it is a missile tracking missile vessel). I believe it to be either a naval EW testbed or it has some sort of automation technology which DRDO want to test before implementing in next generation of Indian Navy ship.

There is a crane (A-Frame) installed on the stern of the ship, it indicates several things, such as-

TDV could be a variable depth sonar tested. It could be used to deploy undersea cables or sonar stations Underwater autonomous vessel testing Oceanographic and marine science Seabed drilling and coring

A-FRAME of a research vessel (Image: seanamic)

Launching an AUV ((Image: seanamic)

Construction of the vessel formally began with a steel cutting ceremony in August 2016. Mega hull blocks were ready to be assembled by early 2017, the superstructure of the ship was fabricated at a remarkable pace. It took GRSE 2-3 years on average to launch a Kamorta class corvette. In the case of TDV, the time between keel laying and when the ship was launched is barely 13 months! and TDV is a larger vessel.Physical specifications :Length: 118.4 mBeam: 20 mDraught: 7.1 mDisplacement: 3900 tons