INS ''Kamorta'' is the first of four

anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

s which has been built for the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

. It is a significant step towards India's pursuit for self-reliance in indigenous warship building, bringing closer home Indian Navy's quest to be a true

Blue-Water Navy A blue-water navy is a maritime force capable of operating globally, essentially across the deep waters of open oceans. While definitions of what actually constitutes such a force vary, there is a requirement for the ability to exercise sea cont ...

with ships and submarines designed and built within the country. She was designed and manufactured by GRSE, launched on 19 April 2010, as part of

Project 28 Project 28 is the name given to a U.S. border protection program that runs along a stretch of the US/Mexican border in southern Arizona.Randal C. Archibold"28-Mile Virtual Fence Is Rising Along the Border" ''New York Times'', June 26, 2007 The pro ...

, approved in 2003. It was named after Kamorta island in

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India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Design and Description

Kamorta was originally expected to be built using high-tensile imported steel. But as the was built INS ''Shivalik'', high-grade steel produced in India was utilized for its construction. It was built by high-grade steel (DMR249A) developed by state-owned

Steel Authority of India Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is a central public sector undertaking based in New Delhi, India. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Steel, Government of India with an annual turnover of INR 1,03,480 Crore (US$13 billion) for fisc ...

from its

Bhilai Steel Plant The Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), located in Bhilai, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, is India's first and main producer of steel rails, as well as a major producer of wide steel plates and other steel products. The plant also produces steel and ...

. She has enhanced stealth features such as an X Form Hull and inclined sides for low

Radar cross-section Radar cross-section (RCS), also called radar signature, is a measure of how detectable an object is by radar. A larger RCS indicates that an object is more easily detected. An object reflects a limited amount of radar energy back to the source. ...

, Infra-red suppression, and

Acoustic quieting Acoustic quieting is the process of making machinery quieter by damping vibrations to prevent them from reaching the observer. Machinery vibrates, causing sound waves in air, hydroacoustic waves in water, and mechanical stresses in solid matter. Qu ...

systems. She is the first Indian Navy ship to be built with carbon fiber reinforced plastic which reduces weight and life cycle maintenance costs. The hull of the ship encompassed the bulk of sensors and weapon systems that were also indigenously manufactured by various Indian industries. It is the first indigenous anti-submarine corvette as well as the first indigenous stealth corvette built by India. About 90% of the ship is indigenous and the ship is capable of fighting in

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

conditions. It is equipped with a ''rail-less helo traversing system'' which is used for handling a helicopter. It also features a foldable hangar door.

General characteristics and propulsion

''Kamorta'' will have a length of

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

and a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of . The ships displace about at full load. It is powered by four

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s at 1,050 rpm It uses four Pielstick 12 PA6 STC diesel engines in

CODAD Combined diesel and diesel (CODAD) is a propulsion system for ships using two diesel engines to power a single propeller shaft. A gearbox and clutches enable either of the engines or both of them together to drive the shaft. Two advantages over ...

configuration and is propelled two two-shaft, controllable-pitch propellers which allow the ship to reach a top speed of . It will have a complement of about 180 sailors and 15 officers excluding flight crew for the integral ASW helicopter and an endurance of . As in INS ''Shivalik'', high-grade steel produced in India was utilized for its construction. She was delivered to Navy on 12 July 2014. She is the first indigenous anti-submarine corvette as well as the first indigenous stealth corvette built by India. Union minister of defense,

Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jait ...

commissioned the ship on 23 August 2014.

Armament

''Kamorta'' is equipped with a wide range of weapon systems. It is fitted with an

OTO Melara 76 mm The OTO Melara 76 mm gun is a naval gun built and designed by the Italian defence company OTO Melara. It is based on the OTO Melara 76/62C and evolved toward 76/62 SR and 76/62 Strales. The system is compact enough to be installed on rel ...

main gun, and uses two

AK-630 The AK-630 is a Soviet and Russian fully automatic naval, rotary cannon, close-in weapon system. The "630" designation refers to the weapon's six gun barrels and their 30 mm caliber. The system is mounted in an enclosed automatic turret and dir ...

guns and provision for 16-cell VLS launched

Barak 1 Barak ( he, ברק, ''lightning'') is an Israeli surface-to-air missile (SAM) designed to be used as a ship-borne point-defense missile system against aircraft, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs. Overview The Barak SAM system is designed to replace or ...

missiles as

close-in weapon system A close-in weapon system (CIWS ) is a point-defense weapon system for detecting and destroying short-range incoming missiles and enemy aircraft which have penetrated the outer defenses, typically mounted on a naval ship. Nearly all classes of ...

, which will be added later. In addition, 2

RBU-6000 The RBU-6000 Smerch-2 (Реактивно-Бомбовая Установка, ''Reaktivno-Bombovaja Ustanovka''; reaction engine-bomb installation & Смерч; waterspout) is a 213 mm caliber Soviet Union, Soviet anti-submarine weapon, a ...

anti-submarine rocket launchers and torpedo tubes capable of firing heavy weight torpedoes. The sensors of this warship include the advanced bow mounted sonar and the indigenous 3D-CAR air-surveillance radar

Revathi Asha Kelunni Nair (born 8 July 1966), better known by her stage name Revathi, is an Indian actress and director, known for her works predominantly in Tamil & Malayalam cinema - in addition to Telugu, Hindi & Kannada films. She has won several ...

with capability to detect targets exceeding . It is also the first warship to be equipped with the

Kavach Kavach may refer to: * Kavach (anti-missile system), an Indian anti-missile naval decoy system * Kavach (train protection system), Indian Railways train protection system * Kavach (TV series), a Hindi supernatural horror drama television series * ...

decoy system for protection against anti-ship missiles. Like INS ''Kolkata'', this warship is also commissioned without the critical medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) and advanced light towed array sonars (ALTAS), which is planned to be added later.

Commissioning

''Kamorta'' was ordered in 2003 and was launched on 21 April 2010. It was expected to join the fleet in October 2012 but was handed over to the Navy on 12 July 2014. On 12 July, the front line warship was formally handed over by GRSE chairman and managing director Rear Admiral A. K. Verma (Ret'd.) to the Navy at a ceremony in GRSE's fitting-out jetty She was commissioned into the Navy on 23 August 2014, with Cdr. Manoj Jha as her first captain. A minor fire broke out on 1 February 2017 in the left engine room of the ship when it was operating at sea. The room was immediately evacuated and the fire put out using the ship's Fixed fire system and there were no injuries during the incident.

Gallery

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamorta Corvettes of the Indian Navy Kamorta-class corvettes 2010 ships Ships built in India