INS ''Nilgiri'' (F33) was the lead ship of her class of frigates. Commissioned on 3 June 1972 into 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 si ...

, she was decommissioned in 1996. INS ''Nilgiri'' was the first major warship built in India keel up, with a displacement ~20x that of an Ajay class patrol vessel. INS Nilgiri was built at Mazagon Docks Limited,

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

in collaboration with Yarrow Shipbuilders,

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. The collaboration involved designs of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

's improved Type 12 general purpose frigate and technical and training support for construction of 6 vessels. The project to build ''Nilgiri'' was led by Homi Sethna and Commander (later Rear Admiral) Prakash N Gour. The success of ''Nilgiri'' led to the Indian Navy along with Mazagon Docks redesigning the last two ships of the class – and to add the Sea King helicopter, ILAS 324 mm torpedo tubes and Bofors ASW rocket launcher. The ship was fitted with the Agouti system to minimize propeller cavitation noise.

Decommissioning

INS ''Nilgiri'' was decommissioned in 1996. She was sunk on 24 April 1997, in a test firing of a

Sea Eagle A sea eagle or fish eagle (also called erne or ern, mostly in reference to the white-tailed eagle) is any of the birds of prey in the genus ''Haliaeetus'' in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Taxonomy and evolution The genus ''Haliaeetus'' ...

anti-ship missile by a

Sea Harrier The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval short take-off and vertical landing/ vertical take-off and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft. It is the second member of the Harrier family developed. It first entered servic ...

Frs Mk.51 taking off from the aircraft carrier .

References

Nilgiri-class frigates Frigates of the Indian Navy 1968 ships Frigates of the Cold War {{India-mil-stub