India’s naval security received a big boost with the commissioning of indigenously designed and constructed Kolkata-class guided missile destroyer the India Naval Ship (INS) `Chennai` on Monday. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar inducted INS Chennai into the naval fleet at a glittering function held in Mumbai.
INS Chennai is the largest-ever warship to be built in India. Built at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd in Mumbai, the ship’s construction also marks the end of the Project 15A to build Kolkata-class guided missile destroyers.
After commissioning INS Chennai, Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that good relations with neighbouring nations are always welcomed but not at the cost of national security.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi made efforts to maintain the relations with the neighbouring country, the people criticised him for that too. We would welcome good relations with any neighbour. Two neighbours being friendly always helps, but at the same time not at the cost of national security,” said Parrikar said at the commissioning ceremony of INS Chennai.
Parrikar said that the Indian army does not take any initiatives to fire across the border unless fired at. He said that the border situation has cooled down a bit and hoped that it would go down further.
He also spoke about the first time he became the Defence Minister and said that he had informed the soldiers that anyone wielding machine gun had come to say hello but kill you. So instead of getting martyred, you must eliminate them, he had added.
With an overall length of 164 metres and displacement of over 7,500 tons, ‘INS Chennai’ is one of the largest destroyers in the Indian Navy’s fleet.
The ship is armed with supersonic surface-to-surface BrahMos missiles and Barak-8 long range surface-to-air missiles.
The ship is to be assigned to the western fleet after completion of some additional trials of systems deployed on it. It is the final destroyer ship in this class.
