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By Akhilesh Pillalamarri
Modi uses a warship’s inauguration to articulate a comprehensive vision of India’s defense and maritime strategies.
This past Saturday, a day after making a speech urging more manufacturing in India, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s largest indigenously built warship, the INS Kolkata, in Mumbai. This comes two months after the prime minister dedicated another large ship, the INS Vikramaditya, in June. India’s Defense Minister Arun Jaitley and Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R.K. Dhowan were also present at the ceremony. The INS Kolkata will be deployed in the Indian Western Fleet under the Indian Navy‘s Western Command.
The warship, which was inaugurated on August 16, 2014, represents a step forward in India’s goal of becoming more self-sufficient in meeting its own defense needs. As Modi said during a speech at the warship’s inauguration, “India can become self-reliant in this sector [defense]. Our youth will become innovative and a day will come when India will export in this sector.”
The 6,800 ton warship is considered a leap in Indian shipbuilding technology. According to reports, “INS Kolkata will be a part of the Kolkata-Class destroyers of the Indian Navy which will include follow-on ships by the names of INS Kochi and INS Chennai.” The INS Kolkata has two main guns along with chaffs and close-in weapon systems. The ship will also feature an air defense weapon, the Long Range-Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM), which is currently under development in a joint venture between India and Israel. However, the missile’s deployment has been delayed due to testing and technical issues. Some of the other capabilities of the warship include the ability to travel at a speed of 30 knots per hour due to the propulsion of four gas turbines and the capacity to fire the 290 kilometer-range BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile.
Read the full story at The Diplomat