On October 22, 2020, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General MM Naravane commissioned the Anti-Submarine Warfare stealth corvette “INS Kavaratti” into Indian Navy at the Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam.
i.INS Kavaratti is the last of four indigenously built Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) stealth corvettes under Project 28 (Kamorta Class).
ii.The ship has completed sea trials for all the Latest equipment inside the vessel, and has been commissioned as a fully combat-ready platform to the Indian Navy.
Design & Build:
i.It has been designed by the Directorate of Naval Design, Indian Navy’s Design wing.
ii.It was built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.
Key Points:
i.The corvette has upto 90 % indigenous content. The ship’s superstructure has been built with the use of Carbon Composites.
ii.It is equipped with State-of-the-art weapons and sensors which are capable of detecting and prosecuting submarines and is capable of fighting in Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) warfare conditions.
iii.It has been named after the capital of Lakshadweep group of Islands and has been constructed using high-grade DMR 249A (Low carbon microalloyed grade of steel) Steel produced in India.
iv.The ship is a reincarnation of Arnala Class Missile Corvette of same name (INS Kavaratti-P80) which had a distinguished service during the 1971 war for Liberation of Bangladesh.
Features of INS Kavaratti:
i.The corvette measures ~110 meters in Length, ~14 meters in Breadth and displacing 3, 300 tonnes. It can achieve a speed of 25 knots.
ii.The corvette is fitted with anti-submarine rockets, torpedoes, medium and close-in weapon systems and Indigenous surveillance radar ‘Revathi’.
iii.It is also capable of carrying Integral Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) helicopters.
iv.It has a multitude of advanced automation systems such as Total Atmospheric Control System (TACS), Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS), Integrated Bridge System (IBS), Battle Damage Control System (BDCS) and Personnel Locator System (PLS).
Persons who attended the Meeting:
Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command Vice-Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, GRSE Chairman and Managing Director Rear Admiral (retired) V K Saxena and other officials attended the event.
First Commanding Officer:
The ship will be manned by a team of Twelve Officers and 134 sailors with Commander Sandeep Singh as First Commanding Officer. It will be part of the Eastern Fleet under Eastern Naval Command.
Recent Related News:
i.The Fourth Edition of the Biennial Japan-India Maritime Exercise JIMEX-2020 took place between Indian Navy and Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) in the North Arabian Sea from 26th September-28th September, 2020.
About Indian Navy:
Chief of the Naval Staff – Admiral Karambir Singh
Headquarters – New Delhi
