As the nation was celebrating Guru Purnima on a Sunday, for the Raging Rhino as she has been known, or formally INS Brahmaputra, the day turned out to be a not-so-pleasant one. In its press release, the Navy reported that a fire had broken out on board the Brahmaputra, an indigenously built multi-role Frigate, on the evening of 21 July. The fire erupted while the ship was undergoing a scheduled repair at its premier Naval Dockyard, Mumbai.
The fire was brought under control by the ship’s crew with the assistance of fighters from the Dockyard and other ships in the harbour by the morning of 22 July. As part of the standard procedures, follow-on actions, including sanitisation checks to assess the residual risk of fire, were also reportedly carried out. In a tragic turn of events, the ship experienced severe ‘listing’ or tilting in common language to one side in the afternoon. By evening, most news channels began flashing images of the ship, continuing to list further alongside her berth on one side.
It was not the first time that an Indian Navy ship had listed. Incidentally, eight years ago, in December 2026, another ship of the same class, INS Betwa, had also tipped over whilst undocking. The Navy has suffered multiple peacetime blows in a series of accidents. What should one make of these events? Is Brahmaputraa done story and gone for good? Is the work culture, especially in dockyards of the Indian Navy, something to be worried about? Has the Navy not learnt lessons from the past? There is little doubt that such questions are expected. But is it truly a case only with the Indian Navy? As ordinary citizens and taxpayers who fund all the sophisticated warships, what is one to make of all occurrences?
Perhaps the biggest naval accident in recent times, whilst in harbour and undergoing refit, was that of USS Bonhomme Richard. Undergoing a refit in July 2020 at her home port of San Diego, the sophisticated 41,000 tons Wasp-class amphibious assault ship was severely gutted down due to a fire which could not be controlled for four days. Eventually, the ship had to be scrapped as the cost of repairs was estimated to be unjustifiable, though the ship had barely completed one-third of its life. Just last week, the Iranian Navy’s Sahand, a destroyer, was involved in an accident during repairs at a port on Bandar Abbas’s coast, resulting in its tripping over. HMS Prince of Wales, the second of the new aircraft carriers and Britain’s most expensive warship has spent more time in repairs than is underway due to the multitude of failures and is finally out of her dry dock.
Indeed, refit is a complex phase of a ship wherein extensive repairs are carried out along with a series of upgrades. World over and in particular, warships have never had it easy during refits. Such activities involve removing old equipment, which is inspected, overhauled, tested, put back and again tested. Simultaneously, new equipment upgrades are installed to keep the older generation warships at par with today’s operational demands. There is mostly no air conditioning due to the nature of refit works, such as welding and associated smoke, new cabling being done, old being removed, and paintwork. In all working conditions on-board, invariably, it saps the energy of every individual. Even during the refit, the ship’s crew is involved in self-training, trials of equipment being installed or reinstalled and myriad other professional activities.
Fire onboard refit ships have hardly been uncommon worldwide – whether warships or commercial. The amount of welding, cutting, removing high voltage electric/electronic equipment, and installing new equipment is perhaps mind-boggling. The fraction of those fires turning into something mentionable is extremely low, even in the Indian Navy. Again, whilst it is unacceptable, the pace of upgrades and modernisation that the Navy has embarked on would be fraught with these challenges. Fighting fire during refits is no mean task either. Small passages with pipelines and cables running around, filled with smoke, and with no lighting make fire-fighting a formidable challenge even for the most seasoned firefighter. To speculate and over-simplify an incident, such as the Brahmaputra, may lead to learning wrong lessons.
For professional navies, such as the Indian Navy, the timelines are often stringent, and the work package in very challenging physical environments is a daunting task for both – the ship’s crew and the dockyards. In particular, the Indian Navy’s operational units, especially on the western seaboard, have been stretched since November/December 2023. All the operational assets have been extensively deployed across the Western Indian Ocean Region and beyond, ensuring the security of the seas against pirates, undertaking maritime security ops in the Gulf of Aden/Red Sea, and delivering on other constabulary and diplomatic roles.
With such extensive deployment, one can imagine the pressure on the dockyard agencies to expedite refits to ensure adequate operational platforms are deployed at sea. Of course, no reason can justify such an accident. Nevertheless, one must recognise conditions which place the staff from ships and dockyards under immense pressure to deliver. Also, by definition, accidents are events that were not intended in the first place.
A professionally introspective and forward-leaning navy that boasts high levels of maturity and integrity, the Indian Navy is sure to undertake a thorough inquiry to address organisational shortfalls and the latent conditions that would have led to the Brahmaputra accident. Moreover, based on past precedents, the Indian Navy is bound to bounce back. When INS Betwa had tipped over in the dockyard, gory images on the internet led to its quick online obituaries being penned. Yet, the ship celebrated its 20th anniversary enthusiastically and has been at the forefront of operations. Sure enough, the Brahmaputra would be back to its Raging Rhinodays.
The Navy is sure to get its house in order even as it maintains an unusually high operational tempo in the western Indian Ocean Region.
Commander Ashok Bijalwan (Retd)
