Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman commissions INS Kiltan

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday commissioned the indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare (ASW) stealth corvette INS Kiltan at the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam.

INS Kiltan is the latest indigenous warship after Shivalik-class, Kolkata-class and sister ships INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt to have joined the Indian Navy’s arsenal wherein a plethora of weapons and sensors have been integrated to provide a Common Operational Picture (COP), an official release said.

It is India’s first major warship to have a superstructure of carbon fibre composite material resulting in improved stealth features, lower top weight and maintenance costs, it said.

Indian Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command H.S. Bisht and other senior officers attended the event at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam.

“INS Kiltan strengthens our defence system and will be a shining armour in our ‘Make in India’ programme as it is totally built here,” Ms. Sitharaman said on the occasion.

The stealth corvette has been designed by the Indian Navy’s in-house body, the Directorate of Naval Design under Project 28 (Kamorta-class).

INS Kiltan is also the first major warship to have undertaken sea trials of all major weapons and sensors as a pilot project and is ready to be operationally deployed on the day of joining the Indian Navy.

In the future, it would also be installed with short range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system and carry an integral ASW helicopter.

According to a Navy statement released earlier, this is the third of the four Kamorta-class corvettes being built under Project 28.

The ship hosts a predominantly indigenous cutting-edge weapons and sensors suite which includes heavyweight torpedoes, ASW rockets, 76 mm calibre Medium Range gun and two multi-barrel 30 mm guns as close-in-weapon system (CIWS) with dedicated fire control systems, missile decoy rockets (Chaff), advanced Electronic Support Measure system, most advanced bow-mounted sonar and air surveillance radar Revathi, it said.

The ship derives its name from one of the islands in Aminidivi group of the strategically located Lakshadweep and Minicoy group of islands.

The ship also boasts of the proud legacy of the erstwhile Petya-class ship of same name ‘Kiltan (P79)’ built in the U.S.S.R., which had actively participated as Task Force Commander in ‘Operation Trident’ during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, the statement added.