The Indian Navy has commissioned the indigenously built stealth-guided missile destroyer INS Imphal on December 26 in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar, Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde of Maharashtra among other dignitaries.
Addressing the commissioning ceremony Admiral Hari Kumar spoke about the INS Imphal being the first warship to be named after a prominent city of the north-east. “Named the capital of Manipur, it is the first warship to represent a prominent city of north-east Bharat that aptly highlights the importance attached to this region by the government,” Kumar said.
Admiral Hari Kumar informed about INS Imphal being the first fully conceptualised, designed and constructed indigenously that is representative of Indian Navy’s commitment to the vision of Aatma Nirbharta.
“Imphal stands third in the Project 15B class of guided missile stealth destroyers and like her predecessors, she has been fully conceptualised, designed and constructed indigenously. Thus, she has the distinction of being a shining symbol of Bhartiya Nausena’s unflinching commitment to the vision of Aatma Nirbharta while being a testament to ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshta Bharat’,” the Navy Chief said.
“INS Imphal, stealth-guided missile destroyer, is set to tackle physical threats that emanate at or from the seas and more importantly, she will deter nefarious designs trying to subvert our national unity,” Admiral Hari Kumar said.
“Once commissioned, the ship’s crew will be comprising of personnels from every cross-section of our society, ranging from every region and state of our demographically rich country – all forged into one strong team that is ready to stake their lives for each other and for our sacred Tiranga, reflecting Bharat’s inherent unity,” the Navy Chief further remarked.
Admiral Hari Kumar revealed that currently the Navy has four Destroyers of Project 15B and 15A class deployed to counter piracy and drone attacks on merchant shipping. Additionally, the P8I Aircraft, Dorniers, Sea Guardians, Helicopters & Coast Guard Ships are all deployed jointly to counter these threats.
The delivery of the ship was made by the Mazagon Dock Ltd to the Indian Navy on October 20, 2023. A guided missile destroyer having a displacement of 7,400 tons and an overall length of 164 metres, Imphal becomes a potent and versatile platform equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors that includes surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes.
Powered by Combined Gas and Gas (COGAG) propulsion, Imphal has the capacity of achieving speeds in excess of 30 knots (56 km/hr). The ship boasts of a high indigenous content of approximately 75 per cent that consists of the following: 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) and 76mm Super Rapid Gun Mount (BHEL, Haridwar). The keel for Imphal was laid on May 19, 2017 with the ship being launched into water on April 20, 2019.