''Kora''-class corvettes are guided missile

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, in active service with the Indian Navy and the National Coast Guard of Mauritius.Indian Naval Ships-Corvettes-Khukri Class
Four vessels were built at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) and outfitted at Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL).

Design

The primary role of the ''Kora'' class is as surface combatants. They are armed with four quad-launchers for 3M-24 anti-ship missiles (Russian: Kh-35 Uran, NATO: SS-N-25 Switchblade). The 3M-24E missile is guided by homing active radar and can carry a warhead to a range of at Mach 0.9 speed. They are powered by two diesel engines. A HAL Chetak or HAL Dhruv helicopter can operate from the vessel. They also have anti-air shoulder-launched missiles (

Strela-2M The 9K32 Strela-2 (russian: Cтрела, "arrow"; NATO reporting name SA-7 Grail) is a light-weight, shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile (or MANPADS) system. It is designed to target aircraft at low altitudes with passive infrared homing guid ...

(Nato code name: SA-N-5 Grail)).The Strela-2M has a range of and a speed of Mach 1.75. INS ''Kulish'' is equipped with two Igla surface-to-air missile launchers. The corvettes are armed with a AK-176 dual-purpose gun and two AK-630 CIWS. The Ak-176 can fire at the rate of 120 rounds-per-minute (RPM) to a range of , while the AK-630 can fire 3,000RPM to a range of . and are fitted with a Otobreda super rapid gun firing 120 RPM. The sensor suite includes a MR-352 Pozitiv-E (Cross Dome) air or surface search radar, Bharat 1245 navigation radar and

BEL BEL can be an abbreviation for: * The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code for Belgium * ''BEL'' or bell character in the C0 control code set * Belarusian language, in the ISO 639-2 and SIL country code lists * Bharat Electronics Limited, an Indian stat ...

Rani navigation radar. The MR-352 radar can track targets within a range of . Fire control is provided by Garpun-Bal and MR-123 radars. The Garpun-Bal radar combines active and passive channels and in the active target designation mode, it operates in X-band (I/J-band) and can handle up to 150 targets at ranges between - , although it is possible to obtain ranges of more than in wave-guide propagation conditions. The corvettes are fitted with the Ajanta P Mk II Electronic Support Measures system. There are four PK-10 chaff launchers and two towed torpedo decoys to deceive incoming anti-ship missiles and torpedoes. PK-10 is a 10 tube barrage chaff launcher that can fire 80 rounds at a time. The ''Kora'' class is powered by two diesel engines driving two controllable pitch propellers through two shafts. Each engine is rated at . Four diesel alternators rated at 350kW are provided for power generation. The propulsion system provides a top speed of , an average speed of and a maximum range of . Each ship cost in 2001 approximately . A simpler version exported to Mauritius in 2014 cost approximately .

History

The ''Kora''-class corvettes were designed by India's Naval design bureau under Project 25A, as a replacement for the Russian-designed Petya II-class corvettes of the Indian Navy. The first two were ordered in April 1990 and latter two in October 1994. The class was to be outfitted with the Trishul SAM, but following the cancellation of the Trishul project, a shoulder-launched SAM was adopted. INS ''Kora'' undertook a goodwill visit to Singapore in mid-2001. The corvette participated in the Republic of Singapore Navy Day celebrations followed by the International Maritime Defence Exhibition (IMDEX) Asia 2001. The participation of INS ''Kora'' in the International Maritime Defence Exhibition was a showcase of the Indian shipbuilding industry and its indigenous efforts.

Export

In 2012, it was reported that Mauritius had ordered 2 vessels based on this class from the Garden Reach Shipbuilders.

Ships of this class

Gallery

References