NEW DELHI, April 25: India's naval chief Madhavendra Singh said on Sunday the navy was mulling plans to buy warships from abroad due to a potential shortfall by domestic manufacturers in the next two years.

"If domestic shipyards are not able to give us new ships, we may certainly have to think of getting ships from abroad," Singh told a press conference in the southern port of Cochin, as quoted by the Press Trust of India.

Singh said India's navy would "certainly shrink in another two to three years" if aging ships were not replaced quickly. "We do believe we need a navy of around 200 ships. At the moment we have 147... the fleet strength will go down to 127 soon if ships are decommissioned as per their original life span," he said.

Singh added that even while inducting 12 Dornier aircraft for short-range patrolling activities the Indian navy was "still on the look out for good long-range" surveillance aircraft.

This month Russia handed over to India the Tabar frigate, the third ship Moscow has built for New Delhi's navy under a one billion-dollar contract signed in 1997. Moscow handed over the two other ships under the contact in 2003.

In January, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov announced in New Delhi that Moscow would sell to India the 44,570-tonne Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier along with 28 MiG-29K maritime fighter jets for some $1.5 billion. -AFP