President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Pranab Mukherjee will review a fleet comprising over 70 ships, including a number of ships from other countries, on February 6, off the coast of Visakhapatnam, as part of the International Fleet Review (IFR).
A full rehearsal was reviewed on Tuesday by Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Satish Soni.
The ships were lined up at the anchorage point in six columns and the Presidential Fleet, comprising the Presidential Yacht INS Sumitra, INS Sumedha, INS Saryu and INS Sunayna, all offshore patrol vessels, sailed passed the six columns.
The sailors lined up on the decks in ceremonial uniforms to give the traditional ‘Man in cheer ship’ salute by cheering ‘Rashtrapati ki Jai’, three times, as INS Sumitra sailed passed.
The Indian Navy is leaving no stone unturned to showcase its naval might to the Supreme Commander of the Armed forces, as well as to the delegates and naval personnel coming from other countries. All the three arms of the Navy, air, surface and underwater, will be showcased, said Vice-Admiral Satish Soni.
Almost all ships from each of the class of destroyers, corvettes, missile corvettes, anti-submarine warfare ships such as the Shivalik, Kadmatt, Delhi, Khukri, Shardul class landing crafts, supply vessels and stealth class ships such as Kamorta and Kolkata will be part of the show. In the submarine arm, Kilo class subs from the Sindhughosh class will be present.
Aircraft carriers
But the highlight will be the country’s newly-acquired aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya and its older cousin INS Viraat. Both the behemoths weighing over 40,000 tonnes were present during the rehearsal.
The entire Indian fleet along with a few ships from multinational navy were present on Tuesday for the rehearsal and the other multinational ships are expected to join very shortly.
A total of 53 navies from different countries are participating and about 20 of them are bringing their ships. The navies that are participating with ships include countries such as USA, UK, Russia, China, Oman, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Brazil, Maldives, Mauritius and Australia. The biggest ship to participate in the IFR will be the 10,000 tonne guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam.
Breathtaking flypast
But what will take away the breath during the review will the flypast and the aerobatics by the air arm of the navy.
The flypast will comprise over 30 aircraft, which include the Chetak, Kamov, Sea King and indigenously built Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv in the helicopter category; Ilyushin 38, Dorniers and Boeing Posedion P8I in the fixed wing reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare category; and Sea Harriers, MIG 29 K and Hawks in the fighter category.
Schedule
The fleet review will begin at 9 a.m. sharp with the arrival of President Pranab Mukherjee, followed by a ceremonial guard honour on the wharf and 21-gun salute, before he embarks his yacht.
He will be preceded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Chief of Naval Staff R.K. Dhowan, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag and Air Chief Arup Raha and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan.