INS Kochi, the largest India-made warship, commissioned

• Destroyer warships are the second-most powerful vessels after aircraft carriers.
• The 7500 tonne ship was been built at the Mazagaon Dock Limited(MDL), Mumbai and is the largest warship to be built in India.
• INS Kochi, packed with weapons and sensors as well as advanced stealth features.
• INS Kochi is the second of the Kolkata class destroyers, the third in the family is INS Chennai, under construction in MDL to be delivered by the end of 2016, fourth of the warship INS Vishakapatnam, to be delivered in 2018.
• INS Kochi is loaded with surface to surface BraMos missile, has 76mm Super Rapid Gun Mount (SRGM) and AK 630 Close in Weapon System (CIWS), has Indigenous Rocket Launchers (IRL), Indigenous Twin-tube Torpedo Launchers (ITTL) and bow-mounted new generation HUMSA Sonar Dome.
• “INS Kochi will add more teeth to the Navy’s sword arm in discharging our duty of safe-guarding maritime interests in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). It further reaffirms our resolve and faith in indigenous ship-building and the ‘Make in India’ programme,” said Admiral Robin Dhowan.
• The Navy, on its part, has plans to become a 200-warship force with around 600 aircraft and helicopters by 2027 to ensure it can effectively guard the country’s expanding geo-strategic interests in the backdrop of the IOR emerging as “the world’s centre of gravity”.
• The MF STAR and LR SAM systems are jointly developed by DRDO ( Defence Research and Development Organisation) and Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.

Source: ET