INS Kavaratti joins Navy fleet

Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane will on Thursday commission anti-submarine warfare (ASW) ship INS Kavaratti into the Indian Navy at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam. Named after one of the islands in the Lakshadweep, INS Kavaratti uses a state-of-the-art indigenously-developed surveillance radar system to engage enemy submarines with a range of torpedoes and rockets. 

As a combat-ready platform modelled of the Russian-made Arnala vessel, INS Kavaratti spans 110 meters in length, and 14 meters in breadth, with a displacement of 3,500 tonnes. 

Fitted with four diesel engines, it can, reportedly, achieve top speeds in excess of 25 knots. The ship is loaded with anti-submarine torpedoes and rockets along with medium and close-range weapon systems that work of the indigenously designed ‘Revathi’ surveillance radar. It can also carry an ASW helicopter. 

With sound defence capabilities, the corvette can travel over 3,400 nautical miles. Its crew is expected to be made up of 17 officers and over a hundred sailors.

Ahead of the ship’s commissioning, Indian Navy, in a statement, said the warship portrays the growing capability of the force.

Here’s all you need to know about INS Kavaratti:

1. It is the last of four indigenously-built ASW under ‘Project 28’ or Kamorta-class corvettes of the Navy. It’s a class of ASWs currently in service with the Navy.
2. Project 28’ was approved in 2003. The other three warships under this project are INS Kamorta (commissioned in 2014), INS Kadmatt (2016) and INS Kiltan (2017).
3. INS Kavaratti has up to 90% indigenous content. The use of carbon composites to build it has been described as a ‘commendable feat achieved in Indian shipbuilding.’
4. The warship has been designed by the Navy’s in-house organisation, the Directorate of Naval Design (DND). Kolkata’s Garden Research Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), meanwhile, has built it.
5. Further, it has state-of-the-art weapons and a sensor that can detect and take action against hostile submarines. It also has a good endurance for long-range deployments.
6. It has completed sea-trials of all its systems fitted onboard and, hence, will be commissioned as a combat-ready platform.
7. INS Kavaratti derives its name from the eponymous INS Kavaratti, which was an Arnala class missile corvette. The older INS Kavaratti operated during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war.
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