Largest ever destroyer of Indian make 'INS Chennai' commissioned into Indian Navy

Mumbai : On Monday, the largest-ever indigenous destroyer ‘INS Chennai’ was inducted into the Indian Navy in the presence of the Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar. ‘INS Chennai’ is the third ‘Kolkata’ class destroyer and it was constructed in the ‘Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited’. During the event, Defence Minister Parrikar warned in clear words that even though the Indian defence forces would not adopt the policy to attack, it would not hesitate to befittingly retaliate. The Defense Minister made this warning while replying to a question related to the ‘Surgical Strikes’ carried out in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in September.

The ‘INS Chennai’ which was commissioned in an event in the presence of the Navy Chief, Admiral Sunil Lanba is the largest destroyer in the Indian Naval fleet. This destroyer which has been constructed under the ‘Project 15A’ has a length overall of 164 meters and displacement of over 7,500 tons. The ‘INS Chennai’ which falls into the category of ‘Guided Missile Destroyer’, is armed with supersonic Surface to Surface ‘BrahMos‘ and ‘Barak-8’ missiles. Apart from this, the ‘INS Chennai’ has been deployed with the ‘Kavach’ system for defence against the enemy missile attacks, which is its specialty as informed by the Naval Officials.

This destroyer which has been commissioned into the ‘Western Fleet’, is the third and the last destroyer of the Kolkata class missile destroyers. Previously, the Kolkata class destroyers, ‘INS Kolkata’ and ‘INS Kochi’ had been commissioned into the Indian Navy in the year 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Defence Minister Parrikar said that India has kept the objective to indigenously develop 75% of technology in the area of defence. But he also clarified further that it needs to be noted that defence technology cannot be 100% indigenously developed anywhere in the world. He assured that while it is necessary to give impetus to the pending projects, several defence projects have now gained momentum. The Defence Minister added that the time span between a project being delayed and its completion has now been narrowed.