Navy will put the indigenous stealth destroyer INS Imphal into service
NEW DELHI: Tuesday marks the commissioning of the Indian Navy’s newest stealth-guided missile destroyer, INS Imphal, which is being built at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai as part of Project 15-B. The major guest for the commissioning event will be Rajnath Singh, the minister of defense.
The Navy claimed that Imphal’s construction and testing took the least amount of time of any native destroyer. The ship Imphal was launched into the ocean on April 20, 2019, after the keel was laid on May 19, 2017. Imphal set out for her first sea trials on April 28, 2023, and completed a thorough program of testing, both at sea and in the harbor, in record time—six months—before it was delivered on October 20, 2023—the quickest for a ship of her size.
According to Indian Navy PRO Commander Vivek Madhwal, the President gave his consent for the naming of the warship on April 16, 2019, making it the first to be named after a city in the Northeast. In front of the chief minister of Manipur, N Biren Singh, CDS Gen. Anil Chauhan, Indian Navy commander Admiral R Hari Kumar, and other dignitaries, Rajnath Singh revealed the ship’s crest in New Delhi on November 28.
Once in service, the ship will be assigned to the Western Naval Command. The Indian Navy’s battleship Design Bureau created the cutting-edge battleship Imphal, which was constructed by MDL with major assistance from the public and commercial sectors, including MSMEs and the Defense Research and Development Organization.
With its length of 163 meters, displacement of 7,400 tons, and 75% local content, Imphal is undoubtedly one of the most formidable battleships ever built in India. The ship is highly automated and includes stealth characteristics. It is outfitted to combat in nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare scenarios.
