India’s first stealth-guided missile destroyer, INS Visakhapatnam, was inducted (entered into the Navy) in Mumbai’s naval dockyard on Sunday. When a new ship or boat is officially put on duty in the Navy, it is called the commissioning of a vessel.
Union Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh was the Chief Guest at the inauguration ceremony.
The Defence Minister, in his speech, mentioned that the purpose of this project is to make the Indo-Pacific Ocean open, safe and secure, and finally concluded his speech by saying that this is another step towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
Atmanirbhar Bharat is a program under which India is trying to become self-reliant (atmanirbhar is Hindi for self-reliant, not depending on anyone) in many important areas like defence, manufacturing, services, etc.
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh, Member of Parliament Shri Arvind Sawant, Western Naval Command Vice Admiral R Hari Kumar, and other senior officials of Ministry of Defence were also present during the inauguration ceremony of INS Visakhapatnam.
INS Visakhapatnam is armed with various weapons and sensors, which include supersonic (supersonic: something that travels faster than the speed of sound) surface to surface ‘Brahmos’ missiles and ‘Barak-8’ long-range surface to air missiles, medium and short-range guns, anti-submarine rockets like the Hull mounted Sonar Humsa NG, torpedo tube
launchers, rocket launchers and advanced electronic warfare and communication suits.
The ship is equipped to fight under nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) warfare conditions. The ship also comes with two helicopters on board to further extend its reach.
A crew of 312 people can be accommodated on the ship.
It can endure a typical 42-day mission and is propelled by a powerful combined gas and gas (COGAG) propulsion plant, consisting of four reversible gas turbines, with which it can achieve a speed of approximately 55 km/hr.
This first-of-the-four missile destroyer ship was indigenously constructed under the project 15B. A guided-missile destroyer is designed to destroy anti-aircraft guided missiles.
(INS) Indian Naval Ship Visakhapatnam was designed by Directorate of Naval Design and
constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Mumbai. Project 15B comprises four ships: Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal and Porbandar, all being built by Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL).
Mormugao was launched in September 2016 and is currently in sea trials. It is expected to be
commissioned next year. The third ship Imphal was launched on April 20, 2019 and is at an advanced stage of outfitting. The fourth ship is under block erection and will be launched within the current financial year.
Image Credit: pib.gov.in