India’s Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDL) has officially handed over the second Project 15B stealth guided missile destroyer, named Mormugao (Y 12705), to the Indian Navy.
Announced by the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD), the delivery of the vessel took place on 24 November.
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Construction of Mormugao commenced in June 2016, followed by the vessel’s launch in September of the same year. The ship began its initial sea trials in December last year.
The MoD said that the destroyer has been delivered nearly three months prior to the original contractual date.
In a statement, the Indian MoD said: “The delivery of Mormugao is an affirmation of the impetus being given by the Government of India and the Indian Navy towards ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ as part of celebration of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’.”
The contract for the construction of four Project 15B or Visakhapatnam-class destroyers was awarded to MDL in 2011 to gradually replace the Indian Navy’s existing ageing of Kolkata-class (Project 15A) destroyers.
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By GlobalDataDesigned by the Indian Navy’s in-house organisation, Warship Design Bureau, all the four vessels have been named after major Indian cities, including Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal and Surat.
The lead warship of the class, called INS Visakhapatnam, has already entered into the service with the Indian Navy.
The fourth destroyer of the class, Surat (YD 12707), was launched by the Indian Navy earlier this year.
The Visakhapatnam-class vessels are 163m-long and 17m-wide and offers high speeds of up to 30 knots.
The destroyers are equipped with nearly 75% of indigenously built weapon systems and equipment.
It includes Larsen & Toubro’s anti-submarine rocket and torpedo tube launchers, Bharat Electronics, Bangalore’s medium-range surface-to-air missiles, BrahMos surface-to-surface missiles and Bharat Heavy Electricals’ (BHEL) 76mm super rapid gun mount.
