Manohar Parrikar commissions destroyer ‘INS Chennai’

With an overall length of 164 metres and displacement of over 7,500 tonnes, ‘INS Chennai’ is one of the largest destroyers in the Indian Navy’s fleet.

A seagull flies on the background of Naval warship INS Kolkata. INS Kolkata is the first of the indigenously designed guided missile destroyer in the Kolkata class. INS Kochi was the second. Photo: Vivek Bendre

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar commissioned ‘INS Chennai’, the third indigenously designed guided missile destroyer in the Kolkata class, here on Monday.

Built at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd in Mumbai, the ship’s construction also marks the end of the Project 15A to build Kolkata class guided missile destroyers.

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba was present on the occasion.

With an overall length of 164 metres and displacement of over 7,500 tonnes, ‘INS Chennai’ is one of the largest destroyers in the Indian Navy’s fleet.

The ship is armed with supersonic surface-to-surface BrahMos missiles and Barak-8 long range surface-to-air missiles.

The ship is to be assigned to the western fleet after completion of some additional trials of systems deployed on it.

The first ship of the class, ‘INS Kolkata’, was commissioned on August 16, 2014 and ‘INS Kochi’ was commissioned on September 30, 2015.

The third destroyer will be placed under the operational and administrative control of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command.