The Mazagon Dockyards Limited-built country's largest indigenous warship INS Kolkata is yet to be formally inducted into the Navy and will have the capability to launch 16 BrahMos missiles in one go when it enters operational service.
It is the first of its class of warships in the country and is undergoing extensive trials before its planned induction into the Navy in July.This warship was used today to test fire the 290 km-range BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, and that was successfully done today off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka .
The BrahMos Missile was test-fired from INS Kolkata, which is a new ship under Project 15-Alpha series, off the coast of Karwar this morning and all the parameters were met during the test, defence officials confirmed .
As reported further,this missile is expected to be carried by all future destroyers and frigates of the Navy and it is also being developed to be offered to the maritime force for being deployed on submarines, the officials said.The missile has also been inducted into the Army and the Air Force and is being readied for firing from a Su-30MKI combat aircraft.
The weapon system will also have its land version inducted into the Air Force. The Army has deployed it in both the eastern and the western fronts along the borders with both China and Pakistan.The Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace has developed several variants of the missile for different kinds of warfare and is now developing a much-faster hypersonic version of the weapon system.
INDIA HONEST welcomes the new addition to our defence system and though it may be beginning of the first few steps by the new government , lot more has to be done only at a war footing speed to strengthen our navy, that has seen very lacklustre progress and faced many debacles in last one decade.
Indian navy has a vast hinterland to look after, that includes the entire Hind Mahasagar, the African side of Arabian ocean and then reaching up to South China Sea, where India has many strategic interests among our South East Asian friends, now vastly threatened by the Chinese hegemony.
Strengthening Indian Navy must be a priority,and that needed huge investments in many new warships and hardware, that had been neglected for a long time to the extent that it has affected our leading and crucial role in this part of sea in the past .