India’s new anti-submarine warfare corvette ready to sail out

Kolkata, June 24 (IANS) India’s newly-built anti submarine warfare (ASW) corvette Kamorta is now ready to join the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet.

The warship is slated to be commissioned into the Indian Navy in July at Vishakhapatnam, where a nuclear submarine – Arihant – is also being built indigenously.

Now docked at the fitting-out jetty (FOJ) of Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (GRSE) here, Kamorta – a super-sophisticated frontline warship with stealth features – is readying to sail out to play its role as Indian Navy’s newest submarine hunter/killer, a defence ministry statement said Tuesday.

It will be the first warship armed with an indigenous rocket launcher for ASW warfare, while also being the first warship armed with trainable chaff launcher.

A sturdy warship, Kamorta is the first in its class of four ASW corvettes being built under Project-28 (P28) for the Indian Navy.

ASW corvettes Kadmatt, Kiltan and Kavaratti are to follow suit progressively.

The lethal quartet – named after four islands in Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshwadeep archipelago – would be used to combat lurking enemy submarines and deployed as advance screen for the Carrier Battle Group to counter any submarine threat to the force.

Kamorta’s designated Captain — Commander Manoj Jha — and the ship’s company (officers and sailors) are meticulously carrying out checks of all systems and equipment onboard including the crucial gas-leak checks as per drills before the formal acceptance of the warship from GRSE later this month.