India’s leading shipyards Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) has delivered the Indian Navy’s fourth Kamorta (Project 28)-class anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvette. The vessel, which will be in service as INS Kavaratti (P 31) once it is commissioned, was handed over on 18 February. The keel of Kavaratti was laid on 20 January 2012 and it was launched in Kolkata on 19 May 2015. The ship takes its name from the Kavaratti, capital of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India. It is the successor ship to the INS Kavaratti, which was an Arnala-class corvette which participated in Operation Trident, and was later decommissioned in 1986.
INS Kavaratti was handed over by Rear Admiral VK Saxena, Indian Navy (Retd), Chairman & Managing Director, GRSE to Cdr Sandeep Singh, Commanding Officer of the ship, in the presence of Cmde DK Goswami, CEO, Chairman, D448 Eastern Naval Command, S S Dogra, Director, (Finance), Cmde Sanjeev Nayyar, Indian Navy (Retd), Director, (Shipbuilding) and Cmde P R Hari, Indian Navy (Retd), Director (Personnel) and other Senior Officials of Indian Navy and GRSE. The ship is the 104th Warship built and delivered by GRSE since its inception in 1960 and is the last in the Series of four Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvettes (ASWC) under Project 28.
INS Kavaratti represents a leap forward in the Navy’s attempts at indigenisation with as much as 90% of its content drawn from India itself. INS Kavaratti has completed sea trials and delivered to Indian Navy on 18th February 2020. The ship cost an estimated ₹1,700 crores. Kavaratti has been designed by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design as part of Project 28. It is capable of fighting under nuclear, biological and chemical environments. It will be a frontline warship of the Indian Navy with advanced stealth features and a low radar signature that enhances its anti-submarine warfare capability. The ship will have a complement of 17 officers and 106 sailors.
The ship is 109 metres long and 12.8 metres broad and is highly maneuverable with a top speed of 25 knots. It has a displacement of 3300 tonnes and a range of about 3450 nautical miles at 18 knots. It is powered by 4 diesel engines that generate a combined power of 3000 kW and propelled by a main unit of four 3,888 kW diesel engines at 1,050 rpm. Its weapon systems include an Oto Melara 76/62 Super Rapid Main Gun, improved versions of the Russian RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers, and DTA-53 533 mm twin torpedo tubes. Kavaratti is to be armed with a range of indigenously developed cutting-edge weapons and sensors, including “a medium-range gun, torpedo tube launchers, rocket launchers and a close-in weapon system”.
