Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 18: Giving a major boost to Indian Navy’s maritime and combat capabilities, an indigenous stealth guided missile destroyer the INS Mormugao, named after the historic port city of Mormugao in Goa, was commissioned by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at Mumbai’s Mazagaon docks on Sunday.
The warship, measuring 163 metres by 17 metres can fight under nuclear, biological and chemical warfare conditions. Propelled by four powerful gas turbines, the warship is capable of achieving speeds of over 30 knots.
Remarking that the state-of-the-art warship INS Mormugao was a major example of the country’s indigenous defence production capability, Singh expressed the confidence about India being able to cater to not just local but global ship-building needs as well.
INS Mormugao is said to feature state-of-the-art weapons and sensors. It is equipped with surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles besides modern surveillance radar that provides target data to the weapon systems.
It is the second of four ‘Visakhapatnam’-class destroyers (also classed as P-15B stealth, guided-missile destroyers) indigenously designed by the Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau. The warship was built by the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited. INS Mormugao will significantly add to the Navy’s combat capabilities, a defence release said.
Also present on the occasion of commissioning of the warship were General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Indian Armed Forces; Navy Chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar; Goa CM Pramod Sawant along with Goa Governor Sreedharan Pillai among others.
“The commissioning of this warship is proof of excellence in India’s warship design and development. The INS Mormugao is one of India’s strongest warships and I have full confidence that it will facilitate remarkable growth in country’s maritime capability. The ship will be among one of the world’s most technologically-advanced missile carrier and is a major example of our indigenous defence production capability. There is no doubt that in the near future, we will cater to India’s ship-building needs but that of the worlds as well,” said Mr. Singh, adding that the country was en-route to attaining the objective of not only ‘Make in India’ but ‘Make for World.’
Noting the continuous increase for demand in military equipment owing to global security reasons, the Defence Minister said the country had every opportunity to utilise its capabilities to the fullest and move forward towards making India “an indigenous shipbuilding hub.”
The INS Mormugao was launched in September 2016 and commenced her sea trials on December 19, 2021, coinciding with 60 years of Goa’s Liberation from Portuguese rule. Her commissioning on today (December) coincides with the day that ‘Operation Vijay’ was launched in 1961 to free Goa from Portuguese rule.
