India’s new stealth guided missile destroyer ‘Imphal’ will be inducted into Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command at a ceremony presided over by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday, according to an official statement on Sunday.
The Western Naval Command is one of three Indian Navy’s command focused on security and operations in the Arabian Sea and western part of Indian Ocean.
The Imphal warship is the third of the four vessels under India’s Project 15B ‘Visakhapatnam’ class indigenous destroyers.
Imphal, the first Indian warship to be named after a city in India’s north-east, has been designed by Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau and built by state-backed Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL), stated the Indian Defence Ministry.
“Measuring 163 metres in length, displacing 7,400 tons and with 75 percent indigenous content, Imphal can rightfully be regarded as one of the most potent warships to have been constructed in India,” the defence ministry stated, adding that the vessel could sail up to a speed of 30 knots an hour.
The ship’s crest was unveiled by Defence Minister Singh on 28 November.
The Indian defence ministry noted that the time taken to build Imphal and complete her trials was the “shortest for any indigenous destroyer”. It said that the ship’s keel was laid in May 2019 and it was launched into the waters in April 2019.
The maiden sea trials commenced in May this year and were completed in less than six months, followed by its delivery to the Navy in October.
Imphal’s Capabilities
India has described its new warship as a “formidable moving fortress” equipped with surface-to-surface missile and surface-to-air missiles.
The state-of-the-art warship successfully test-fired an extended range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in November this year, which was the first for any Indian warship before being commissioned into the Navy, the ministry said.
It is also fitted with modern surveillance radar to provide “target data” to gunnery weapon systems of the ship.
“The ship’s anti-submarine warfare capabilities are provided by the indigenously developed rocket launchers, torpedo launchers and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters,” the ministry said.
Imphal is also conditioned to fighter under nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) warfare conditions, it said.