Surface Forces: September 1, 1999

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The Indian Navy has announced plans to spend $1 billion buying two modern submarines and three stealth frigates. Another $200 million will be spent on six Russian-built Tu-142 maritime recon planes.--Stephen V Cole

The US Navy and its potential shipbuilders have agreed to install a single-barrel 155mm cannon on the DD21 Land Attack Destroyer instead of a two-barrel design. The Navy expects to buy 25 of these ships for about $800 million each.--Stephen V Cole

Poland is designing a new class of six modern 1,600-ton frigates based on the German MEKO-100 design. The ships will have a six-ton helicopter (Sokol or Super Lynx), a single medium-caliber gun forward, a 16-cell vertical launcher for anti-aircraft missiles, eight tubes for anti-ship missiles, two torpedo tubes, an anti-missile Gatling gun, and two chaff/flare systems.--Stephen V Cole