Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman commissioned INS Kiltan , the third of the four Project-28 Kamorta class anti-submarine warfare (ASW) stealth corvette, at the Eastern Naval Command here on Monday.

Addressing naval officers and the media from the deck of the newly-commissioned ship, the Minister said the Indian Navy is vigorously pursuing the policy of indigenisation and the commissioning of the third Kamorta class corvette is a step in that direction.

Indigenous technology “About 81 per cent of the ship is built indigenously and is the first to be built in India that has a superstructure made of carbon fibre composite material. This makes the ship stealthy and ours is one of the few countries that have this technology and this class of ships,” she said.

The keel of the ship was laid in 2010 under the Project-28 scheme and was built by Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.

Sitharaman added that the Navy was moving from the status of a ‘buyer Navy to a builder navy’.

“We have already gained the expertise in building hulls and we now need to focus on propulsion and weapon technology,” she said.

India has a long coastline with a vast EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) and there is a need to have a capable and potent Navy, she added.

Chairman and Managing Director of GRSE VK Saxena said that the partnership between GRSE and the Indian Navy began in 1961 and so far the Kolkata-based ship builder had built over 100 ships for the Navy and the Indian Coast Guard. “In the next few years, we will be delivering 10 ships to the Navy with state-of-the-art technology,” he said.

Salient featuresINS Kiltan has been constructed using high-grade steel produced in State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL). The ship has a displacement of 3,500 tonnes, spans 109 meters in length and 14 meters at the beam and is propelled by four diesel engines to achieve speeds in excess of 25 knots with an endurance of 3,450 nautical miles. It is equipped to fight in nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) warfare conditions.

The ship derives its name from one of the islands in Aminidivi group of the Lakshadweep and Minicoy group of islands and its war cry is ‘We hunt the hunters’.

The ship is manned by a team of 13 officers and 178 sailors and is commanded by Commander Naushad Ali Khan.

The Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba and Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Vice-Admiral HCS Bisht were present.

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