New Delhi: The Indian Navy commissioned its new and indigenously built warship INS Imphal, at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The homegrown stealth-guided missile destroyer will enhance Indian’s maritime capabilities and will shore up India’s defence against rising Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean region.
The commissioning ceremony saw presence of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde.
All you need to know about INS Imphal
INS Imphal is the first warship to have been named after a city from the North-East India, the approval for the same was given in 2019 by the then President.
The Made-in-India stealth-guided missile destroyer boasts of about 75% indigenous inventory. It is equipped with BrahMos surface-to-surface missiles, Torpedo tube launchers and a 76mm super rapid gun mount.
Seen as one of India’s most lethal warships, it has been equipped with advanced weapons, sensors and also enabled to undertake anti-submarine warfare operations.
The stealth destroyer has been designed for multi-combat role and can worker under under Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) warfare conditions.
The ship can attain a maximum speed of 56 km/hour and it underwent several sea trials before getting commissioned into Navy.
It was delivered to the Indian Navy on October 20 and it also saw successful test-firing of the supersonic BrahMos missile.
INS Imphal is the third of 4 ‘Visakhapatnam-class destroyers, developed and designed by the Indian Navy. Also, the time taken in building the destroyer & putting it for sea trials is the shortest ever.
There are other destroyers in the Visakhapatnam class which include INS Visakhapatnam, INS Mormugao, Imphal and Surat. All these represent different regions of the country. These destroyers are no less potent that aircraft carriers in terms of operational capability.
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— रक्षा मंत्री कार्यालय/ RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) December 26, 2023
