The Indian Navy is all set to commission the guided-missile destroyer, Visakhapatnam, and a Kalvari-class submarine, Vela, by next week that will enhance our maritime fighting capability in the face of growing Chinese machinations into the Indian Ocean region.
As per the reports, Vice Admiral Satish Namdeo Ghormade, the Vice Chief of Naval Staff, said destroyer ‘Visakhapatnam’ will be commissioned on November 21 by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh while submarine Vela will be commissioned on November 25 by Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh.
“We all know that the maritime environment is a complex one and it only increases with more number of players involved. We live in a time when global and regional balances of power are shifting rapidly and the region of most rapid change is undoubtedly the Indian Ocean Region,” Vice Admiral Ghormade.
Vice Admiral Ghormade also said that as many as 39 naval ships and submarines are currently being constructed in various Indian shipyards and there is a continuous effort to ensure that the force levels grow progressively to enhance the capability of the Indian Navy to meet the emerging challenges.
“The commissioning of Visakhapatnam will reaffirm India’s presence amongst an elite group of nations with capability to design and build advanced warships,” the Vice Admiral said.
Talking about the capabilities of this ship, Vice Admiral Ghormade said this ship has much indigenous equipment in the ‘float’ and ‘move’ categories, along with many major indigenous weapons such as medium-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by Bharat Electronics Ltd, surface-to-surface missiles by Brahmos Aerospace and torpedo tubes and launchers by L&T.
“The overall indigenous content of the project is approximately 75 per cent,” he said
With regards to the submarine Vela, the fourth submarine of the Kalvari class the Admiral said, “Submarine building is a sophisticated exercise involving placing small components sequentially and logically inside the submarine as the space within is extremely constricted,”.
“Very few countries possess this ability in their industrial capacity. India has proven its capability to build our own submarines for the past 25 years,” he added.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.