The Chief of Naval staff, Admiral R Hari Kumar, on Tuesday introduced the Indian Navy’s latest stealth-guided missile destroyer ‘INS Imphal’, the first warship to have been named after a city from the northeast.
Warship Imphal, which can fire extended-range supersonic BrahMos missiles, was commissioned into the Indian Navy in Mumbai on Tuesday in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The Navy Chief further said, “The name Imphal is very significant. This is the first time we are naming a major warship after a city in the Northeast of Bharat.”
“We have a community of about 400 personnel from Manipur and it just symbolises the way warship functions with personnel from all over the country, all districts, all blocks, all working together for one single cause which is of holding our tricolour and fulfilling the mission of the ship,” said Admiral R Hari Kumar.
“Warship Imphal also reflects the same ethos of multicultural, multifaith, multiclass and all sorts of unifying sentiment. Ek Bharat Shesh Bharat is the underlying theme,” the official added.
The chief of naval staff also spoke on the anti-piracy and anti-drone strike operations by the Indian Navy and said that robust action would be taken against the increasing number of drone and piracy attacks.
“You are aware that the Navy is undertaking antipiracy and anti-drone strike operations. It is a matter of concern now that the number of attacks has gone up. To put it into correct perspective, since November 19, there have been altogether 30 drone and piracy attacks,” said the official.
“So between November 19 to date, about 35 days, that roughly translates to one attack per day or so. If we look to the previous year before we had barely 4-5 incidents. The frequency has definitely gone up,” he said.
“The Navy has decided to take very robust action to protect merchant shipping. About 50per cent of these 30 attacks have happened in the Red Sea and no attacks have happened against any of the Indian-flagged merchant vessels. We’re going to board and search all the suspicious vessels. We will put in additional units to bring this under control, added the Navy Chief.
Earlier in the day, the Navy official said, “INS Imphal will not only tackle physical threats that emanate at or from the seas, but more importantly, through the demonstrated strength of an integrated Bharat, she will deter nefarious designs, trying to subvert our national unity.”
“Even as we speak, we have four destroyers of 15 Alpha and Bravo class deployed to counter piracy and drone attacks on merchant shipping, he added.
INS Imphal is a state-of-the-art warship, designed by the Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau and built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd, with significant contributions from the public and private sectors, including MSMEs, and the DRDO.
INS Imphal is the third ship of the Visakhapatnam-class stealth-guided missile destroyer.