New Delhi: Four years after its launch in Mumbai, the Indian Navy is set to commission the guided missile destroyer, Imphal, in December.
The ship, designed by the Navy’s Warship Design Bureau (WDB), was delivered by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDL) on 20 October this year. The Navy will unveil the crest of the Imphal in New Delhi Tuesday.
After the ship is launched — the process of putting the vessel in water — builders take months, or, as in this case, years to complete the construction process. A warship then undergoes tests, undertaken both by the manufacturer and the Navy. Once the Navy gives a formal approval, the vessel gets commissioned, or inducted into the force, with the INS tag added to its name.
The Imphal is the first capital (among the Navy’s most important) warship to be named after a city in the North-East — the capital of Manipur,.
It is the third ship of the Navy’s Project 15B or the Visakhapatnam-class ships and the first warship in India with separate accommodation for women officers and sailors, according to media reports.
In 2011, the Indian government had reportedly sanctioned four 15B ships at the cost of Rs 29,700 crores.
The first ship in this series, INS Visakhapatnam, was commissioned on 21 November 2021, while the second ship, INS Mormugao, was commissioned on 18 December last year. The fourth ship, Surat, was launched in May last year and is said to be at an advanced stage of outfitting.
Imphal, which is being touted as one of the largest destroyers built in India, is 164-metres long and has a displacement (weight) of 7500 tonnes.
“The ship boasts a high indigenous content of approximately 75 percent, including MRSAM [medium range surface to air missiles], Brahmos SSM, indigenous torpedo tube launchers, anti-submarine indigenous rocket launchers and 76 mm SRGM [super rapid gun mount],” said an Indian Navy statement released Monday.
Also read: Navy decommissions Ilyushin-38 Sea Dragon, India’s oldest maritime surveillance aircraft
‘1st extended range Brahmos test firing before commissioning’
The Imphal can carry a crew of 312 and has an endurance (period or distance that it can operate without requiring restoring) of 4000 nautical miles.
The ship can carry onboard two helicopters, and uses a powerful combined gas and gas (COGAG) propulsion plant, consisting of four reversible gas turbines, which enables Imphal to achieve a speed of over 30 knots (approximately 55 kilometres per hour).
The vessel is armed with supersonic surface-to-surface ‘Brahmos’ missiles and ‘Barak-8’ Medium Range Surface to Air Missiles (MRSAM), according to MDL.
When it comes to undersea warfare capabilities, the destroyer is fitted with indigenously developed anti-submarine weapons and sensors, such as the hull-mounted sonar (sound navigation and ranging tool) Humsa NG, heavy-weight torpedo tube launchers and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) rocket launchers.
It is the first among all Visakhapatnam-class destroyers to be fitted with an upgraded Brahmos missile, having dual role capability of long-range and land attack.
During the pre-commissioning trials of the ship on 22 November, the vessel carried out the successful firing of an extended range (ER) Brahmos missile.
“This is the first-ever test-firing of the extended range Brahmos missile by a warship before the commissioning, which underscores Indian Navy’s unwavering focus on combat readiness, Aatmanirbhar Bharat’s growing shipbuilding prowess and assured reliability of indigenous weapons and platforms,” the Navy had said in a statement at the time.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: ‘Fragile security situation in South China Sea’ — Navy chief highlights danger to sea order