INS MORMUGAO - DEFENCE AND SECURITY
News: Missile
destroyer INS Mormugao commissioned into Indian Navy
What's in the news?
● Remarking
that the state-of-the-art warship INS Mormugao was a major example of the country’s indigenous defense production
capability, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on expressed confidence about
India being able to cater to not just local but global ship-building needs as
well.
Key takeaways:
● The second of the Project
15B stealth-guided missile destroyers built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders
Limited (MDSL), INS Mormugao (Pennant D67), was
commissioned into the Indian Navy.
● The
ship, named after a key port in Goa, was commissioned a day before the Goa
Liberation Day celebrations.
INS Mormugao:
● 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 December 18 coincides with the day that ‘Operation Vijay’ was launched in 1961 to free Goa from Portuguese
rule.
● The
INS Mormugao is said to be equipped with state-of-the-art
weapons and sensors, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles besides
modern surveillance radar which provides target data to weapon systems.
● Capable
of achieving speeds of over 30 knots, the warship is said to be able to fight under nuclear, biological and
chemical warfare conditions.
Project 15A:
● 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.
Project 15B:
● 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.
● Designed
by the Warship Design Bureau, Indian Navy’s in-house warship design body, and
built by MDSL in Mumbai, the four ships of Project 15B were to be named after four major cities around the country -
Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal, and Surat.
Strategic significance:
● Technically,
destroyers are a category of
warships that have high speed,
maneuverability, 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 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, maneuverability, and strike
capability, guided missile destroyers are key assets in various types of naval
operations, mainly offensive.
● According
to officials, the Visakhapatnam class is one of the most advanced ships in the
Indian Navy, which can operate as an independent offence platform even without
being part of a large formation. With its modern sensors and communication
facilities, the Visakhapatnam class is a key asset in modern “network centric warfare”.