INS Kamorta, an indigenously built anti-submarine warfare corvette, was inducted into the Eastern Fleet of the Indian Navy here on Saturday. Commander Manoj Jha read the commissioning warrant in the presence of Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R K Dhowan, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice-Admiral Satish Soni, Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition, Vice-Admiral A Subedar, and Chairman and Managing Director, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Rear Admiral (retd) AK Verma.

Addressing the gathering later, the Defence Minister congratulated the Indian Navy, the GRSE, other Indian PSUs and a host of small-scale industries that had contributed to building the ship and said the induction of INS Kamorta added thrust to the ongoing endeavour to indigenise. He later unveiled the commissioning plaque and dedicated the ship to the nation.

INS Kamorta is the first of four ASW stealth corvettes designed by the Navy’s in-house organisation, the Directorate of Naval Design (DND), under Project 28, with around 90 per cent indigenous components. Measuring 110 meters in length, 14 meters in breadth and displacing 3,500 tonnes, the ship can achieve speeds of 25 knots. The ship is fitted with anti-submarine rockets and torpedoes, medium and close-in weapon systems, and an indigenous surveillance radar.

Later, Jaitley said by inviting FDI in defence manufacturing “we are not interested in foreign suppliers only setting up manufacturing plants here, we are keen on building the capacities of our PSUs and private sector defence supply units to manufacture cutting-edge technology solutions.”

The public sector units too would have to gear up to become competitive and defence research laboratories should also rise to the challenge of developing and delivering appropriate solutions, Jaitley added.

>sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in

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