Time ripe for indigenous warships: India`s Naval Chief

Mumbai, Sep 18 (PTI) India's Naval Chief Admiral Nirmal
Kumar Verma Friday said a serious relook at the inefficiencies
of Navy is required and an indigenous warship building system
needs to be conceptualised.

"Indian Navy is poised for growth and the time to
conceptualise an indigenous warship building system has come.
Also, a serious relook at the inefficiencies of Navy is
required," Verma said at the launch of warship INS Kochi, a
Delhi-class destroyer, at the Mazgaon dock in south Mumbai.

Verma said, "Fluctuating funding in the past has
compelled the Navy to resort to (warship) building in abroad,
but now there is an urgent need to emulate worldwide trends in
warship building (in the country)."

The 6,500-tonne INS Kochi, launched by Verma's wife
Madulika, is the second warship in the 'Project 15-A' under
which three guided-missile destroyers with stealth and
multi-role features will be built.
"The destroyer has been launched using pontoon-assisted
technique, employed for the first time in the history of
indigenous warship building. The technique helps in overcoming
slipway constraints which hinder heavier vessel movement into
deeper waters for fitting its superstructures such as decks,"
chairman and managing director of Mazgaon Dock H S Malhi said.

INS Kochi has advanced stealth features that make it less
vulnerable to detection by enemy radar. Its weapons system
include nuclear capable supersonic BrahMos surface-to-surface
missile. PTI