The Indian Navy has commissioned the largest Indian warship, INS Chennai.
The newly built INS Chennai, India’s third indigenously designed guided missile destroyer (Photo: Reuters)
INS Chennai, a Kolkata-class destroyer ship and the largest-ever warship built in India, was commissioned into the combat fleet of the Indian Navy at the naval dockyard in Mumbai on November 21, The Times of India newspaper reported, citing Indian Defense Minister, Manohar Parrikar.
“The ship is equipped with a decoy that can divert a missile attack. 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,” The Times of India quoted the words of Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba, who also attended at the ceremony.
According to chief of the Western Command of the Naval Command, Vice-admiral Girish Luthra, INS Chennai is capable to carry up to two multi-role combat helicopters.
The length of the vessel is 164 meters, the deadweight – more than 7,500 tones. INS Chennai is capable to reach a speed up to 30 knots (around 55 km) per hour.
The vessel is armed with the BrahMos supersonic surface-to-surface missiles and the Barak-8 long rang surface-to-air missiles, as well as equipped with the Kavach chaff decoy system and the Mareech torpedo decoy system, which will protect INS Chennai against enemy missiles and torpedoes. Its undersea warfare capability includes heavyweight torpedo tube launchers, anti-submarine weapons and sensors, rocket launchers, the hull-mounted HUMSA-NG sonar, and towed array sonar capability.
High level of automation of INS Chennai is provided by combat management systems, auxiliary control system, automatic power management system, and ATM-based integrated ship data network.
The vessel is powered by a powerful combined gas and propulsion plant, which includes four reversible gas turbines.
Reportedly, the vessel is going to be placed under control of the Western Naval Command.
The Indian Navy plans to consist of about 600 aircraft and 200 warships by 2027.
