INS MORMUGAO

1. Context 

2. About Project 15B

• Over the last decade, the Indian Navy has commissioned three guided missile destroyers of the Kolkata class INS Kolkata, INS Kochi and INS Chennai under the project codenamed 15A.
• These ships were a step ahead of their precursor Delhi class of ships INS Delhi, INS Mysore and INS Mumbai.
• All these ships were built by MDSL, one of the country's most important Defence PSUs.
• A ship "class" describes a group of vessels of similar tonnage, usage, capabilities and weaponry.
• The contract for four guided missile destroyers more advanced than the Kolkata class was signed in January 2011.
• This was Project 15B and the lead ship, INS Visakhapatnam (Pennant D66) was commissioned into the Navy in November 2021.

• A ship class is identified by its lead ship, in this case, INS Visakhapatnam.

3. The Construction of Mormugao

• The Keel of Mormugao (Yard 12705) was laid in June 2015 and the ship was launched in September 2016 by then-Defence Minister late Manohar Parrikar.
• The Visakhapatnam class has largely maintained the hull form, propulsion machinery, many platform equipment and major weapons and sensors from the Kolkata class to benefit from series production.
• But it incorporates advanced stealth features and a higher degree of automation.
• The sleeker hull design and the radar-transparent deck fittings make the vessels difficult to detect.

Image source: News18

4. Specifications and weaponry of Mormugao

• INS Mormugao and the other three ships in the class are 163 m long and 17.4 m wide, with a displacement of 7, 300 tonnes.
• For comparison, the recently commissioned first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant is 262 m in length and 62 m in width and displaces around 43, 000 tonnes when fully loaded.
• INS Mormugao and other ships of the class are operated by a crew of 350, including 50 officers and 250 sailors.
• Accommodation and working areas have superior ergonomics and habitability compared with their predecessor classes.
• The Visakhapatnam class destroyers have multiple fire zones, battle damage control systems and distributional power systems for improved survivability and reliability in extreme operational and conflict scenarios.

• The ship's firepower consists of vertically launched Barak-8 surface-to-air missiles and BrahMos surface-to-surface cruise missiles for long-range engagement of shore and sea-based targets.
• The forward bow deck has a 127 mm main gun and four AK630 30 mm guns for close-point defence capability.
• The destroyer will also be armed with indigenously developed 533 mm torpedo launchers and RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers.
• It can operate two multi-role helicopters Sea King or HAL Dhruv.
• The ship also has rail-less helicopter traversing and a hangar facility.
• The "combined gas and gas" (COGAG) configuration integrates four gas turbines.
  The propulsion system allows the ship to reach a maximum speed of 30 knots (55km/h) and a maximum range of 4, 000 nautical miles (7, 400 km).

5. Strategic significance of Mormugao

• Technically, destroyers are a category of warships that have high speed, manoeuvrability and longer endurance to be part of the escort for larger vessels in a fleet or a carrier battle group also known as a carrier strike group.
• Modern destroyers are swift, sleek and difficult to detect and primarily protect the fleets and carrier battle groups from the short-range surface, air, and sub-surface attacks.
• Guided-missile destroyers are capable of anti-aircraft and anti-submarine warfare, apart from anti-surface operations.
• Because of their speed, manoeuvrability and strike capability, guided missile destroyers are key assets in various types of naval operations, mainly offensive.

6. Visakhapatnam class

• The Visakhapatnam class incorporates user feedback on the Kolkata class, besides several new features.
• The state of art stealth feature ensures it has the radar signature of a very small ship and a very high indigenous component gives it a strategic edge.

For Prelims & Mains