Visakhapatnam: The Indian Navy on Saturday formally received the first fully ingeniously built anti-submarine warfare Corvette (ASW), INS Kamorta, at Visakhapatnam. The naval warship was handed over to the Indian Navy by Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd. (GRSE) after a brief ceremony. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley commissioned India’s first indigenously built anti-submarine warfare INS Kamorta.
INS Kamorta, first in its class of four ASW corvettes, is the first Indian naval warship ever built in the country with almost 90% of indigenous content, a defence ministry release said.
Armed with stealth features, it is the first warship equipped with the new trainable chaff launcher – Kavach. The hull of the ship encompassed the bulk of sensors and weapon systems that were also indigenously manufactured by various Indian Industries.
The foldable hangar door fitted for the first time with a rail-less helicopter traversing system is also a noteworthy first on any Indian naval ship, and would give helicopter operations from the corvette deck a significant edge over existing platforms of other warships.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said, “In recent months amongst the various initiatives government has undertaken, one is indigenous manufacture of our Defence deployment. I am sure INS Kamorta will serve this country effectively for a very long time.â€
INS Kamorta is the first Indian Navy ship to be built with carbon fiber reinforced plastic and was designed by Indian Navy’s in-house organisation, Directorate of Naval Design (DND).
It will carry short-range Surface-to-Air missiles (SAM) and Active Towed Array Decoy System (ATDS). It can also carry an integral anti-submarine warfare helicopter.