Guided-missile destroyers: India
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INS Kochi
The Times of India, Sep 29 2015
Rajat Pandit
Navy to get `Conquerer' INS Kochi, largest India-made warship `Jahi Shatrun Mahabaho' loosely means `armed to conquer the enemy' in Sanskrit. It's an apt motto for the guided-missile destroyer INS Kochi, packed with weapons and sensors as well as advanced stealth features, which was commissioned on September 30 as the largest-ever warship to be built in India till now. Destroyers are second only to aircraft carriers in projecting raw combat power on the high seas. Induction of the 7,500-tonne INS Kochi, the second of the three Kolkata-class destroyers being built at Mazagaon Docks (MDL) at Mumbai for over Rs 4,000 crore apiece, will make it the 10th destroyer in India's combat fleet.
The first of this class, INS Kolkata, was commissioned in August 2014, while the third INS Chennai will be inducted towards end-2016. There is also the even bigger ongoing Rs 29,644-crore project to build another four stealth destroyers at MDL, with the first INS Visakhapatnam slated for delivery in 2018-2019.
The Navy , on its part, has plans to become a 200-warship force with around 600 aircraft and helicopters by 2027 to ensure it can effectively guard the country's expanding geo-strategic inter ests in the backdrop of the IOR emerging as “the world's centre of gravity“.
The IOR has over 120 warships at any given time, with China fast becoming a force to reckon with in the region.
