Source : India Today
India is adding more muscle to its maritime prowess with a stealth-guided missile destroyer, named Imphal, for the Navy. With China expanding its footprint in the Indian Ocean Region, India has scaled up its naval acquisition plan—at least 175 warships by 2035, if not the optimal target of 200.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh, on November 28, unveiled the crest of Yard 12706 (Imphal), the third among the four Project 15B stealth-guided missile destroyers. Accompanying Singh was Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh since Imphal is the first warship to be named after a city in the Northeast.
Designed by the Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau, Imphal was delivered by the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited on October 20 and will be formally joining the naval fleet.
Why Indian Navy destroyer INS Imphal is a force multiplier in the face of China threat
The Indian Navy, the world’s eighth largest, has 132 warships, besides 143 aircraft and 130 helicopters. It has placed orders for 68 warships and vessels worth Rs 2 lakh crore.
In comparison, China’s navy, according to a US-based think-tank, is the world’s largest, with a battle force of approximately 340 platforms, including major surface combatants, submarines, amphibious ships, mine warfare ships, aircraft carriers and fleet auxiliaries. This excludes the approximately 85 patrol combatants and craft loaded with anti-ship cruise missiles. The overall battle force of China’s navy is expected to grow to 400 ships by 2025 and 440 by 2030.
According to the defence ministry, the crest design of Imphal depicts the Kangla Palace on the left and ‘Kangla-Sa’ on the right. The Kangla Palace is a key historical site in Manipur while the ‘Kangla-Sa’ is a mythical being from Manipuri history, with a dragon’s head and lion’s body. It is symbolic as guardian of its people and is the state emblem of Manipur.
The Indian Navy has had a tradition of naming many ships after prominent cities, mountain ranges, rivers and islands.
The Imphal is seen as a hallmark of indigenous shipbuilding and considered to be among the technologically most-advanced in the world. The four Project 15B ships that it is part of were sanctioned by the Union government in 2011 at an outlay of Rs 29,700 crore. The first ship in this series, INS Visakhapatnam, was commissioned in November 2021. The second, INS Mormugao, joined the fleet in December 2022.
A guided missile destroyer with a displacement of 7,400 tonnes and overall length of 164 metres, Imphal is a potent and versatile platform equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors, including surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes. It is powered by a combined gas and gas propulsion and can achieve speeds of over 30 knots (56 kmph).
Navy officials say three-fourths of the warship’s platforms are indigenous, including medium-range surface-to-air missiles, BrahMos surface-to-surface missiles, torpedo tube launchers, anti-submarine rocket launchers and the 76mm Super Rapid Gun Mount, a rapid-fire naval gun.
Imphal’s keel was laid on May 19, 2017 and the ship was launched into water on April 20, 2019. The ship sailed out for maiden sea trials on April 28 this year and has undergone a comprehensive schedule of trials in the harbour and at sea, leading up to its delivery on October 20—all achieved in a record six months. Imphal, as part of the pre-commissioning trials, also underwent successful firing of an extended-range BrahMos missile. The Indian Navy said in a statement that the time taken to build Imphal and complete her trials was the shortest yet for any indigenous destroyer.
