The Indian Navy is set to commission the first Project 15B stealth guided-missile destroyer, INS Visakhapatnam, and the fourth Project-75 submarine, INS Vela, this month.
In a statement, the Indian Ministry of Defence said the commissioning ceremonies for Visakhapatnam and Vela would be held on 21 November and 25 November respectively.
Each Project 15B ship is 163m in length and features advanced technology and a displacement exceeding 7,400t.
Late last month, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) handed over the INS Visakhapatnam (Y 12704) to the service.
The company is under contract to build four Project 15B ships for the Indian Navy.
The Project 15B ships, also known as the Visakhapatnam-class destroyers, are a follow-on of the Kolkata-class ships (Project 15A).
The recently delivered Vela is one of six submarines of Scorpene design that are being built by MDL in Mumbai through a transfer of technology from French firm Naval Group.
Construction of the submarines and the destroyers in the country is in line with the Indian Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and the use of indigenous content contributes towards ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’.
According to the Indian Navy, the first ship of the Survey Vessel Large (SVL) project, Sandhyak, will be launched early next month.
Sandhyak is the first of the four vessels under the SVL Project being built by Kolkata’s Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) for the Indian Navy.
