INS ''Kolkata'' is the lead ship of the stealth guided-missile destroyers of 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 ...

. Named after an Indian city of

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

(erstwhile

calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

),she was constructed at

Mazagon Dock Limited Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) (IAST: ''Majhagānv Dawk Limiṭeḍ''), formerly called Mazagon Dock Limited, is a shipyard situated in Mazagaon, Mumbai. It manufactures warships and submarines for the Indian Navy and offshore platfor ...

(MDL), and was handed over to the navy on 10 July 2014 after completing her

sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...

s. The ship was officially commissioned by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

in a ceremony held on 16 August 2014.

Construction

The keel of ''Kolkata'' was laid down in September 2003 and she was launched on 30 March 2006. Her commissioning was originally planned for 2010, but this was delayed to 16 August 2014 as a result of a series of project delays. During her construction at MDL, she was given the designation Yard-701.

Sea trials

The commissioning of ''Kolkata'' was delayed from 2010 to 2014 due to delays in her construction and technical problems which were found during her sea trials. The issue detected was generation of additional noise, which occurred when the engine, gear box and the shaft were operated together, but which worked issue-free when run independently. The issues were fixed and the sea trials were completed by February 2014, when the ship returned to MDL to undergo minor work before delivery.

2014 carbon dioxide leak

On 7 March 2014, during a complete check-up of the ship's machinery to fix the problems found during sea trials, a naval officer was killed and several workers were injured when a valve on a CO₂ bottle malfunctioned during a test of the vessel's carbon dioxide fire-fighting unit at the Mazagaon dockyard. For the test, fire-retarding carbon dioxide gas was to be released into a compartment; the test was part of the destroyer's delivery trials. ''Kolkata''s engineering officer-designate, Commander Kuntal Wadhwa, inhaled a large amount of gas and was rushed to St George's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Two dockyard officials who also inhaled the gas were also taken to hospital for treatment. MDL stated that the incident will not delay the scheduled commissioning of the ship.

Weapon trials

INS_Kolkata_firing_a_Long-Range_Surface-to-Air_Missile

As part of her pre-commissioning weapon trials at sea, ''Kolkata'' test-fired a BrahMos missile off

Karwar Karwar is a seaside city, ''taluka'', and administrative headquarters of Uttara Kannada district lying at the mouth of the Kali river on the Kanara coast of Karnataka state, India. Karwar is a popular tourist destination and with a city urba ...

's coast on 9 June 2014, and the test met all parameters. On 15 February 2015, BrahMos missile was on test fired from INS ''Kolkata'' during the Tropex exercise in the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

. On 29 December 2015 and 30 December 2015 the Indian Navy successfully test-fired the Barak 8 missile from INS ''Kolkata''. Two missiles were fired at high speed targets, during naval exercises being undertaken in the Arabian Sea.

Service history

References