INS Mormugao (Pennant D67)

About INS Mormugao-

• The ship, named after a key port in Goa, was commissioned a day before the Goa Liberation Day celebrations.
• 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.
• 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. 
• A ship class is identified by its lead ship, INS Visakhapatnam.
• It incorporates advanced stealth features and a higher degree of automation. The sleeker hull design and the radar-transparent deck fittings make the vessels difficult to detect.
• The ship has around 75 per cent indigenous content.
• INS Mormugao — and the other three ships in the class — are 163 m long and 17.4 m wide, with a displacement of 7,300 tonnes.
• They have a total atmospheric control system (TACS) that offers protection to the crew from chemical, biological, and nuclear threats, as well as a state-of-the-art combat management system that can evaluate threats using analytical tools and create a tactical picture that includes available resources on board. The warships have a secure network for data from its sensors and weapons systems.
• The ship’s firepower consists of vertically launched Barak-8 surface-to-air missiles and BrahMos surface-to-surface cruise missiles for long-range engagement of shore- and sea-based targets. The ship also has rail-less helicopter traversing, and a hangar facility.
• The ‘combined gas and gas’ (COGAG) configuration integrates four gas turbines. The propulsion system allows the ship to reach a maximum speed of 30 knots (55 km/h), and a maximum range of 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km).
• Technically, destroyers are a category of warships that have high speed, manoeuvrability, 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, manoeuvrability, and strike capability, guided missile destroyers are key assets in various types of naval operations, mainly offensive.