MUMBAI - The Indian Navy's newest destroyer, the INS Visakhapatnam, was launched by Magazon Docks Ltd at its shipyard in Mumbai on April 20. The vessel - the first of a new class of warships designated Project 15B (P15-B) by the Indian Navy - was designed by indigenously by the Navy's own in-house design bureau, the Directorate of Naval Design. Production of the new class of four warships - which are being built off the Project 15A Kolkota-class destroyers, themselves a follow-on of the Russian-designed Project 15 Delhi-class destroyers - is being undertaken by Magazon Docks.
The new 7,300-ton Project 15B destroyer is powered by two Ukrainian Zorya Production Association M36E (E for Export) gas turbines producing over 48MW (64,000 hp). The M36E combined gas and gas (COGAG) arrangement features four DT-59 reversible gas turbines grouped in two pairs, driving two propellers through two RG-54 gearboxes. The ship is able to achieve a top speed of 30 knots.
The ship is designed for networked warfare and is stealthier and more formidable in terms of firepower than its P15-A Kolkata-class predecessors (three of which are in various stages of being commissioned). Armaments will include four 30mm rapid-fire guns, a 127mm main gun, the AK-640 close-in anti-missile gun system, 32 Barak 8 long-range surface-to-air missiles and 16 long-range Brahmos anti-ship missiles. The INS Visakhapatnam also features the Israeli Multi-Function Surveillance Threat Alert Radar (MF-STAR).
INS Visakhapatnam will be commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2018.
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