 |
| INS Kolkata, Lead ship of the Kolkata class Destroyer |
The Kolkata-class destroyer ship INS Chennai, the largest ship built in India to date, was commissioned into New Delhi’s naval fleet on Monday by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
The ceremony took place at Mumbai’s navy yard and the ship was constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd., also in Mumbai.
The third Indian-built missile destroyer in its class, the vessel has a displacement of over 7,500 tons, is 538-feet long and can travel at speed up to 55 KPH.
"The ship is equipped with a decoy that can divert a missile attack," the Times of India quoted one official saying. "Nearly 60% of the ship was built at Mazagon Dock, while weapons and sensors were brought from Israel and Russia. Destroyers are second only to aircraft carriers in projecting raw combat power."
New Delhi’s western naval command will assume responsibility of the Chennai, and vice-admiral Girish Luthra, head of the western command, noted that the ship is “designed to carry and operate up to two multi-role combat helicopters."
The destroyer comes equipped with anti-submarine weapons, rocket launchers, heavyweight torpedo-tube launchers, and a HUMSA-NG hull-mounted sonar to shore up its underwater battle capabilities. The ship also features Barak-8 long range surface-to-air missiles and supersonic surface-to-surface BrahMos missiles.
A Mareech decoy torpedo system and a Kavach chaff decoy system will help protect Chennai from enemy projectiles, while it is propelled by four reversible gas turbines in a combined gas and propulsion plant.
By 2027 the Indian Navy intends to develop a fleet of 200 warships and 600 aircraft.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.