Moscow :  Equipped with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, INS Teg, a Russian-built frigate for the Indian Navy, will set sail once its Indian crew arrives and takes over the warship from the Russian Navy, well-informed sources said here Friday.

INS Teg is the first of six Talwar (Krivak) class frigates to be equipped with the 290-km BrahMos missiles jointly developed by India and Russia. The first three Talwar class warships -- INS Talwar, INS Trishul and INS Tabar -- that were inducted in the Indian Navy in 2002 and 2003 do not have the BrahMos, but are equipped with Klub class missiles.

Apart from INS Teg, two other frigates, being built by the Kaliningrad-based Yantar shipyard -- all three constituting the second line of Talwar-class ships -- will also have the BrahMos missiles integrated. With the successful test of BrahMos, INS Teg is now ready to sail to India. It is awaiting its Indian Navy crew, who are expected later this month or early in January 2012, sources here told IANS.

The Indian Navy plans to induct the warship by March 2012, they added. The Russian Navy, which had conducted the sea trials of INS Teg in September, test-fired the BrahMos from the ship s bow in the first week of December. Telemetric data indicated that all of its systems performed optimally, the sources said. India and Russia had in July 2007 signed a