In news- Y 12704 ship has been delivered to the Indian Navy recently.
About the ship
- It is the lead ship of Project 15B stealth guided missile destroyers.
- It was designed by the Directorate of Naval Design, Indian Navy’s in-house design organisation.
- It was built by M/s Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd, Mumbai.
- The contract for four ships of Project 15B, as the Visakhapatnam class ships are known, was signed in 2011.
- The four ships are christened after major cities from all four corners of the country viz. Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal and Surat.
- It is an inheritor to Project 15 and Project 15A, which gave the Navy, respectively, the advanced Delhi and Kolkata class of destroyers.
- This project is a follow-on of the Kolkata class (Project 15A) destroyers commissioned in the last decade.
- The keel of Visakhapatnam was laid in October 2013 and the ship was launched in April 2015.
- The design has largely maintained the hull form, propulsion machinery, many platform equipment and major weapons & sensors as the Kolkata class to benefit from series production.
- The ship is built with DMR-249A grade steel developed by the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) under the DRDO.
Key features of the ship
- The 163 metres long warship has a full load displacement of 7400 tonnes and maximum speed of 30 knots.
- The overall indigenous content of the project is approx. 75%.
- Apart from myriad indigenous equipment in the ‘Float’ and ‘Move’ categories, the destroyer is also installed with major indigenous weapons which include:
- Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missiles (BEL, Bangalore).
- BrahMos Surface-to-Surface Missiles (BrahMos Aerospace, New Delhi).
- Indigenous Torpedo Tube Launchers (Larsen & Toubro, Mumbai).
- Anti-Submarine Indigenous Rocket Launchers (Larsen & Toubro, Mumbai).
- 76mm Super Rapid Gun Mount (BHEL, Haridwar).
Source: PIB
