Late last month, the Indian Navy's combat fleet received a major boost as the nation's newest stealth warship, Imphal, was handed over to the country's maritime force by the government-owned shipyard Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL).
"The ship boasts of a high indigenous content of approximately 75% that includes Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missiles, Brahmos Surface-to-Surface Missiles, Indigenous Torpedo Tube Launchers, Anti-Submarine Indigenous Rocket Launchers, and 76mm Super Rapid Gun Mount", the Indian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Against this backdrop, Sputnik India takes a look at the various kinds of warships in operation with the Indian Navy.
Aircraft Carriers
At present, the Indian Navy has two aircraft carriers (the INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant) in its fleet and over 130 warships.
While the 40,000-tonne Vikramaditya was acquired from New Delhi's long-time strategic partner Moscow, the 44,000-tonne Vikrant was locally manufactured in India.
Indian aircraft carrier Vikramaditya
© AP Photo / Saurabh Das
Destroyers
In military parlance, a destroyer comes just below an aircraft carrier in a maritime force's pecking order.
Currently, the Indian Navy has around seventeen such ships in its arsenal with some of them having state-of-the-art modern weaponry as well as stealth features.
The Visakhapatnam class of naval vessels generally have a length of approximately 164 meters and a displacement of 7,400 tonnes.
Besides the BrahMos, these ships are armed with Barak surface-to-air missiles and an anti-missile gun system.
Plus, these destroyers have anti-submarine rocket launchers as part of their weapons package, giving more teeth to their anti-submarine activities in ocean waters.
The Indian Navy has already commissioned two Visakhapatnam-class destroyers - Visakhapatnam and Mormugao, while the third Tripura will be commissioned soon.
According to former Indian Navy spokesperson, Captain D.K. Sharma, besides having stealth features, these guided missile destroyers are armed with surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, sonars, torpedoes, rockets, electronic warfare devices, etc.
"Moreover, MH-60 Romeo helicopters can be parked on them, which itself is called the flying brigade, making it a very potent platform as far as capabilities of a warship are concerned," Sharma told Sputnik India on Monday.
President Droupadi Murmu at the launch ceremony of Vindhyagiri
© Twitter/@rashtrapatibhvn
Frigates
Frigates are medium-sized warships that come a notch below missile destroyers in naval terminology.
Till last year, 12 different types of missile frigates were in service of the Indian Navy.
The frigates of the Indian Navy have been classified as Shivalik, Talwar, and Kamorta amongst others as per their displacement weight and speed.
Among them, the Shivalik class of frigates were the maiden stealth vessels inducted into the Indian Navy.
"These are the multi-role frigates and are the first-of-its kind warships built in India incorporating stealth features," a description of these frigates on the Indian Navy's official website reads.
Manufactured by the state-owned Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) from 2000 to 2010, these frigates have been named after a Himalayan mountain range called Shivalik.
On the other hand, the frigates of the Talwar class were developed under a joint Indo-Russian venture.
These vessels are modified versions of Russia's Krivak III class of guided missile frigates.
Boasting a speed of 30 knots coupled with a displacement of 4,000 tons, the Talwar class frigates are used to conduct a variety of roles, including anti-submarine missions as well as to eliminate large warships of the enemy.
"Indian Navy's stealth frigates are a little smaller in size to destroyers but carry an equal punch if not more. Everything remains the same, the only thing is, these vessels are a little smaller in size, they carry less number of personnel compared to the destroyers but have almost the same kind of a kill capability," Sharma underlined.
Corvettes
The Indian Navy also operates a wide range of corvettes, primarily built to carry out anti-submarine warfare activities.
The corvettes, having a displacement of around 2,500 tons are right behind frigates in the hierarchy of the Indian Navy's battleships.
Manufactured indigenously by the public sector shipyard Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) situated in the eastern megapolis of Kolkata, India's most modern corvettes, namely INS Kamorta, INS Kadmatt, INS Kiltan and INS Kavaratti, were inducted into service in the mid and late 2010s.
These corvettes have world-class stealth characteristics including acoustic sound features for vibration reduction and an infrared system that gives greater strength to their propulsion system.