This Indian city will be hub for repair of US Navy ships, more cities to follow

The Master Shipyard Repair Agreement (MSRA) between the US Navy's 7th Fleet and the Larsen & Toubro Shipyard Kattupalli, near the Southern Indian city of Chennai, allows the repair and refit of US Navy Warships here. However, there are no plans to conduct repairs of US Navy Warships at this Indian facility, said Capt. Michael L Farmer from the Office of Defense Cooperation, US Embassy, New Delhi.

He was responding to WION's question regarding the possibility of US warships undergoing repairs at the Kattupalli shipyard, where three US Naval Ships (part of the Marine Sealift Command) have already visited for repairs.

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In August 2022, dry cargo vessel USNS Charles Drew had sailed into Kattupalli, making it the first American Navy vessel to undergo repairs and refit at an Indian shipyard. In March 2023, USNS Matthew Perry a similar dry cargo vessel had come in for repairs.

On Monday, 10th July, USNS Salvor, a salvage and rescue ship became the third US Naval vessel to undergo repairs in Kattupalli. However, the USNS Salvor is the first to undergo repairs under the new MSRA between the US Navy's 7th fleet and L&T Kattupalli.

A 78-m long vessel, the USNS Salvor is a Safeguard-class rescue and salvage ship that can carry out towing operations, firefighting, provide support to other ships at sea, support diving operations, explosives and ordnance disposal etc. This ship sailed into Kattupalli, after completing a joint exercise with the Indian Navy's INS Nireekshak in Kochi, Kerala on India's Western Coast.

"The US Navy has reached a five-year Master Shipyard Repair Agreement(MSRA) with Larsen& Toubro here in Kattupalli. A landmark development and the first such agreement in India, the MSRA is a symbol of our strengthened US-India partnership. The USNS Salvor marks the first US vessel to conduct a mid-voyage repair at L&T under this agreement," said Judith Ravin, US Consul General, Chennai.

The MSRA is a legally non-binding arrangement between the US Navy and private shipbuilding contractors to pre-approve shipyards to repair US Naval vessels, she added.

Queried about whether the US Navy was also scouting for similar ship repair facilities in Goa and Mumbai, on India's Western seaboard, Capt Farmer told WION that "the US Navy is open to different shipyards and in future, there could be additional MSRA agreements".

However, he added that this MSRA was not about offering bases for US Navy ships in India. "This is just an enabling agreement, which allows a company(in this case L&T) access to US Navy's contracting system to bid on projects that are available. This is in no way a basing agreement," he told WION.

Singapore and Japan serve as major ship repair facilities for the US Navy in the Indo-Pacific and Indian shipyards getting added to the list would mean that US ships at sea can undertake repairs at very short notice, thus enabling their longer availability for mission deployments.

However, the MSRA is not a guarantee that a certain fixed number of ships would visit and undergo repairs at a given point in time, it is merely an agreement that enables such visits. Given the crucial location of Chennai in the Indian Eastern seaboard, the Kattupalli yard offers a convenient stopover for transiting ships that wish to undergo maintenance.

"In the future if the Indian and US Governments agree, the US Navy warships could come for repairs. For instance, a good number of US Navy ships use the General Electric Marine LM-2500 engines, which is also used by the Indian Aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, therefore there is quite a bit of experience and knowledge here in handing and repairing them. For the time being, only the Military Sealift Command ships(that go with the prefix USNS) would be visiting for repairs," Capt Farmer added.

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