Delay mars main air defence weapon deployment on INS Kolkata

New Delhi: The largest indigenously-built warship INS Kolkata, to be inducted into the Navy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 16 August, will be commissioned without its main air defence weapon which protects the vessel from aerial attacks.

The Long Range-Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM) is under development in a joint venture between India and Israel and is expected to complete its trials in September and would then be available for being deployed on board the warship INS Kolkata, Rear Admiral AB Singh told reporters in New Delhi.

He said the 6,800-tonne warship will have close-in weapon systems and chaffes to provide protection along with its two main guns.

The LR-SAM is the main air defence weapon of the naval warships in future but the programme has been delayed due to technical glitches.

Navy officials said the four rear motors of the missile system have been sent to Israel for testing but have been stuck in transit in South Korea due to the on-going conflict in West Asia.

The motors have now been recalled and would be sent to Israel at a later date, they said.

The warship will also not have a towed array sonar as the DRDO is developing it indigenously and the first project trials failed, the navy officials said.

On 23 August, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley will also commission an indigenously built INS Kamorta anti-submarine warfare vessel, which has been built by the Kolkata-based Gardenreach Shipbuilders.

The INS Kolkata would be deployed in the Western Fleet under the Navy’s Western Command whereas the INS Kamorta would be part of the fleet under the Vishakhapatnam-based Eastern Command.

PTI