India to Commission Home-grown Anti-Submarine Corvette Next Week

The Indian Navy is likely to commission its home-grown anti-submarine corvette, INS Kiltan on October 16 in southern port city of Vishakhapatnam.

The newly appointed defense minister, Nirmala Sitharaman will be commissioning the corvette, Outlook magazine reported Monday.

INS Kithan is third of the four Project 28 warships. Two of the four corvettes, INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt were commissioned in 2014 and 2016 respectively. The remaining one INS Kavaratti is under construction and is slated to be completed by the end of 2017.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in July had come down hard on the Indian Navy for causing inordinate delay in construction of four anti-submarine warfare corvettes. 

In a report tabled in Parliament, the federal auditor said two of the four warships were delivered to the Navy were not fitted with required weapons and sensor systems due to which they could not perform to full potential as envisaged. 

The CAG was severely critical of the Navy's Directorate of Naval Design (DND) for delay in finalising the design of the corvettes, saying approved designs were amended 24 times. 

INS Kilthan and INS Kavaratti are capable of fighting under nuclear, biological and chemical environments. INS Kiltan will be a frontline warship with advanced stealth features and low radar signature enhancing its anti-submarine warfare capability. The original INS Kiltan was decommissioned in 1987.

The Kamorta-class corvettes or Project 28 currently being built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata succeed the in-service Kora-class guided-missile corvettes.

The corvettes are fitted with OTO Melara 76mm Super Rapid Gun Mount (SRGM) that can fire 120 standard ammunition rounds a minute for a maximum range of 16 km. It also is mounted with two AK 630 close-in weapon systems (CiWS) on either sides of the deck. The CiWS provides defense against anti-ship missiles, precision guided weapons and low-flying fixed or rotary wing aircraft.

The Kamorta class is also installed with Barak surface-to-air missiles, RBU-6000 (IRL) anti-submarine rocket launchers, Revati 3D surveillance radar, fire control radars and HUMSA (Hull Mounted Sonar Advanced).

The corvettes are powered by a combined diesel and diesel (CODAD) propulsion system.