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India commissions her most modern indigenous warship

Syed Firdaus Ashraf

It was like the patient bride who waited eternally for her groom.

He promised to come, made several plans, but never turned up.

But Indian Naval Ship Delhi never raised a whimper of protest, though Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral kept postponing his Bombay trip to commission her.

Nor was the biggest and the most powerful warship built in the Indian Ocean region impatient -- that was reserved for the authorities concerned.

The D-day was fixed, but Gujral had to cancel his trip following Union Minister of State for Defence N V N Somu's death in a helicopter crash yesterday.

The tragedy shocked the nation, and only on Friday evening was it clear that the commissioning ceremony was on with Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat at the helm.

So the Indian navy took a giant leap into the powerful league on Saturday morning at the hands of Admiral Bhagwat. In deference to Somu's death, the commissioning ceremony was kept low key.

Built at Bombay's naval dockyard, INS Delhi is the most modern indigenous -- the Indian contribution is as high as 65 per cent -- warship which can engage and destroy an adversary in air, on water and underwater. Its integrated sensor package enables detection of multidimensional threats; it also has a computer-aided combat and tactical co-ordination system.

Admiral Bhagwat pointed out that INS Delhi is India's 75^th indigenous warship. "The ship has cost us $ 200 million," he said. "If we had given the order outside India, it would have cost us nothing less than $ 1,000 million."

The audience then paid homage to former minister Somu by observing one minute's silence.

"I feel he is still here," said Admiral Bhagwat, "and is showering his blessing on this ship."

Built to withstand nuclear-biological-chemical warfare, the ship can be shut in case of an alert and fight blindly, officials said. Equipped with radiation-detection systems, the 6,700-tonne destroyer -- it is one-and-a-half-times bigger than a football field -- boasts of a powerful arsenal of conventional weapons, including 16 Russian-built Uran surface-to-surface missiles which can blow up ships 10 km away and Cashmere surface-to-air missiles. Fitted with two long-range surveillance radars, the warship can effortlessly cruise at 30 knots. Another advanced feature is the Gatling gun system which can fire 6,000 rounds in a second.

INS Delhi will participate in the forthcoming International Defence Exhibition at Lankawi, Malaysia. "It will symbolise India's scientific, technological and industrial capabilities," Admiral Bhagwat said.

India's most powerful warship was named INS Delhi in honour of a naval ship with the same name that was decommissioned 20 years ago. That ship, then, was the sole representative of a newly-independent India.

Commissioned HMS Delhi at Chatham, United Kingdom, on July 5, 1948, she reached Bombay on September 15 and was personally received by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

It played a vital role in the development and growth of the navy and participated in the 1961 operations for Goa's liberation before being converted, in the seventies, into a training ship. Many officers of the former INS Delhi have distinguished themselves by attaining flag rank.

Quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, Admiral Bhagwat said, "By and large, it can be said that, even in the past and remote ages, it was the seafaring nations that prospered, both from the point of view of power and the point of view of wealth, because of trade and commerce. I do not say that land-locked nations have not been powerful. They certainly have been powerful, for periods at a time, but, on the whole, the importance of seapower has been a dominant feature of history."

"INS Delhi,, with her high endurance and technology, would add significantly to the punch of the Indian Navy in safeguarding the maritime interests of the country."

EARLIER REPORT:
INS Delhi to be commissioned on Saturday

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