Article Posted on : - Apr 20, 2010

Raksha Rajya Mantri M M Pallam Raju in front of 'INS Kamorta', an anti-submarine warfare corvette, during its launch in Kolkata on Monday. PTI photo

KOLKATA (PTI): India has launched one of its indigenously built anti-submarine warfare warship for trials before its induction into the Navy.

Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju's wife Mamatha M launched the stealth corvette, first of the series of four under Project 28, at a function at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), a Defence PSU shipyard, here.

The corvette, codenamed Yard 3017, is scheduled for commissioning in to the naval fleet by mid-2012.

Three other warships in this class of corvettes are currently under construction here and all of them are expected to be inducted into the Navy by early 2015, Navy officials in New Delhi said on Monday.

Fitted with the latest indigenously developed sonars to detect submarines, the warships' torpedo tubes, Improvised Rocket Launchers (IRL) and scutter launchers contribute to its anti-submarine punch.

In addition, the warship would also be equipped with vertically-launched Point Defence missile System (PDMS) and Close in Weapon Systems (CIWS) such as AK-630's and Super Rapid Gun Mount (SRGM), apart from decoy system 'Kavach'.

This class of warships are of a fully indigenous design and are built with indigenously developed and manufactured high-strength steel DMR-249A.

"The ships have excellent stealth features. This has been achieved by incorporating unique 'X' shaped hull form to reduce RCS; underwater radiated noise has been minimised by mounting the gearbox and diesel engines on a common raft; designing a propeller with high cavitation inception speeds and equipment with extremely low noise and vibration parameters," they said.

The corvette is around 110 metres in length with a beam of 13 metres and a draught of almost 4 metres, with a 3,100-tonne displacement.