Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) has delivered the lead ship of the Project 15B stealth guided-missile destroyers to the Indian Navy.
The Visakhapatnam Class warships have been indigenously designed by the Directorate of Naval Design, its Indian Navy’s in-house design organisation, and built by MDL at its docks in Mumbai. Construction began when the keel was laid in October 2013, and the ship was launched in April 2015.
The four warships are christened after major Indian cities located across the four corners of the country, viz. Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal and Surat.
Visakhapatnam Class warships will have a total load displacement of 7,400 tonnes, and the 163m long stealth destroyers can attain a maximum speed of 30 knots.
The Visakhapatnam Class is a follow-on to the Kolkata Class (Project 15A) destroyers commissioned last decade and largely maintain the same hull form and propulsion machinery of the latter class of warships, along with much of its platform equipment and major weapons and sensors class to benefit from series production. The P-15B Class features an overall indigenous content of approximately 75%.
Larsen & Toubro, Mumbai has supplied the indigenous torpedo tube launchers and the indigenous anti-submarine rocket launchers, while Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru, supplied the warship’s Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missiles. The 76mm Super Rapid Gun Mount is supplied by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, and the BrahMos Aerospace delivered the Mach 3 capable BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.