The visit marks the latest attempt by the Navy to hawk the nation's indigenous shipbuilding capabilities, following a 1995 directive from the Ministry of External Affairs asking it to increase goodwill visits to foreign ports.

One of the primary reasons for the MEA directive was the dwindling order books of indigenous shipyards and huge accumulated losses of the State-owned shipyards. The Navy was asked to entice ship and submarine orders from countries in West and South Asia.

That year, the Navy hit the accelerator. Indian ships visited over 20 Asian countries, a trend that has continued for over four years now.

An essential component of every visiting flotialla in the last four years has been the 1200-tonne Project 25 Khukri class corvette, astretched Indian version of the hardy Russian Tarantul class missile boat, with a flight deck to accommodate a light helicopter.

But four years later and after a spate of visits to over 20 Asian countries, the results have been a bit of a disappointment, say Naval officials. The last straw came a few days ago, when the Philippine Navy placed an order for a class of medium patrol vessels on a South Korean shipyard.

The Philippines had evinced the keenest interest in the Khukri class over the last four years. When the latest Project 25 ship, the INS Khanjar visited that country, the Filipino defence minister and defence secretary spent over an hour on board that ship.

But the market is crowded, ruthlessly competitive and delivers quickly. In 1996, British shipbuilders Vosper Thornycroft delivered two corvettes to the Royal Omani Navy in a stunning drawing-board to sea-board time of less than 40 months.

In sharp contrast, the four Project 25 Khukri class ships have taken over 15 years to design andbuild. The first Project 25A class ship, the INS Kora was commissioned only last year, six years after it had been launched.Four units of the Khukri class were built by the Mazagon Docks Ltd and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineering Ltd (GRSE) between 1986 and 1994.The indigenous shipbuilding effort has already been bogged down by shipyards like the notorious union-infested Garden Reach Shipbuilding and Engineering (GRSE).

Meanwhile, the only ships any Indian yard has managed to export have been two water tankers to the Iranian Navy in the early 80s.

The INS Kora bristles with a staggering 16 Kh-35 Uran anti-ship missiles, possibly a world record for a ship of its size. It has an indigenous component of 70 per cent. But the fact that all its missiles, guns and radars are sourced from the Russian federation, is something that could work against any possible export order, say shipyard officials. ``It's no use just building the hull when all the weapons and sensors come from a third country,'' said ashipyard official. Even here we lag behind. Hulls built by other Asian shipyards are far sleeker than the ones turned out by any Indian shipyard.

``So the best we can hope for is a foreign ship repair order,'' shrugs a Naval official. Or an offshore patrol vessel like the Coast Guard's Samar class with minimum weapon fits, or even survey or hydrographic ship.