Named after Liberation War predecessor, India’s warfare stealth corvette commissioned
India's indigenously built anti-submarine warfare stealth corvette was today commissioned into the Indian Navy, carrying the same name as its predecessor, which made a stellar contribution to Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971.
Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane commissioned the corvette, named INS Kavaratti, at Visakhapatnam dockyard in Andhra Pradesh.
The INS Kavaratti, named after an Indian island in the Arabian Sea, is the reincarnation of the erstwhile Indian Navy ship Kavaratti which was an Arnala class missile corvette that was deployed during the Liberation War for support in mining the entrances to Chattogram. That ship had captured the Pakistani merchant ship 'Baqir' during the operation.
In its present avatar, INS Kavaratti has a length of 109 metres and breadth of 14 metres with a displacement of 3,300 tonnes and is regarded as one of the most potent anti-submarine warships to have been constructed in India.
Propelled by four diesel engines, the ship has enhanced stealth features to make it less susceptible to detection by the enemy and is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and systems to fight in nuclear, biological and chemical warfare conditions, according to the Indian defence ministry.
Kavaratti has a state-of-the-art weapons and sensor suite capable of detecting and eliminating submarines. In addition to its anti-submarine warfare capability, the ship also has credible self-defence capabilities and good endurance for long-range deployments, the Indian Defence Ministry said.
Some of the major equipment and systems developed indigenously include combat management systems and torpedo tube launchers, it added.
The latest INS Kavaratti, indigenously designed by the Indian Navy's in-house organisation, Directorate of Naval Design(DND), and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) in Kolkata, has up to 90 percent indigenous content and the ship's weapons and sensors suite is predominantly indigenous.