India showcases stealth destroyer INS Kolkata at IMDEX 2019 in Singapore

4 min readMay 16, 2019

The INS Kolkata, a stealth destroyer and the INS Shakti, a fleet support ship are participating in the ongoing International Maritime Defense Exhibition Asia 2019 in Singapore. Top Indian firms, including Larsen & Toubro and Brahmos Aerospace Pvt. Ltd., are participating, too.

This event, which kicked off on 14th May, is witness to the best and the most promising technologies offered by weapons systems manufacturers from all over the world.

Previous appearances of the INS Kolkata and the INS Shakti

Last week, the INS Kolkata and the INS Shakti had also participated in a Group Sail along with naval platforms from Japan, the Philippines, and the U.S. In the Group Sail the ships undertook mock exercises displaying their navies’ readiness. A few procedures included:

Formation Manoeuvering
Underway Replenishment Runs
Cross-Deck flying
Exchange of Sea Riders

The two ships were also present at the International Fleet Review which was held as part of the 70th-anniversary celebrations of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, at Qingdao in China.

After that, they were present at the opening ceremony of the Maritime Security Field Training Exercise as part of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), which is a congregation of defense delegations from 8 ASEAN dialogue partners, namely; Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, ROK, the Russian Federation, and the United States. The INS Kolkata and the INS Shakti sailed towards Singapore to attend the IMDEX Asia 2019 after that.

The INS Shakti at Busan. Source — The Hindu

The Singapore India Maritime Bilateral Exercise 2019

The two ships will remain busy after the IMDEX 2019 as they are slated to attend the 26th edition of the Singapore India Maritime Bilateral Exercise 2019 (SIMBEX 2019).

The naval exercise will keep the INS Kolkata and the INS Shakti occupied between the 16th and 22nd of May,2019. This exercise is held once every six months. This is a live-fire exercise and features mock engagements between all naval weapons systems currently used by India and Singapore.

Of particular interest, however, is the INS Kolkata.

The Kolkata-class destroyers consist of the INS Kolkata, INS Chennai, and INS Delhi. This is a class of guided-missile destroyer with a stealth profile, and are designated as the Project 15A. The previous class, called Project 15, consisted of the Delhi-class destroyers. The updated versions of the 15A will be called the 15B (Vishakapatnam-class). The Project 15 series of ships are built by the Mazgaon Dockyard Limited (MDL).

INS Kolkata anchored at Mombasa, Kenya. Source — Wikimedia Commons

Dimensions

Length — 163m (534 ft)
Beam — 17.4m (57ft)
Draught — 6.5m (21ft)
Displacement — 7,400 tons (fully loaded)

Propulsion

Powerplant — 4 combined gas-gas reversible gas turbines (twin-turbines geared to a single shaft)
Speed — 30 knots (56kph)
Range — 8000 miles (15,000km) at 18 knots (33kms)

A schematic of a combined gas-gas turbine also called a COGAG turbine. Source — Wikipedia

Armament

4 x 8-cell, a total of 32 vertically-launched Barak 8 anti-aircraft missiles
2 x 8-cell, a total of 16 BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles
1 x 76mm Oto Melara multi-purpose main gun
4 x AK-630 CIWS (close-in weapons systems, for anti-air and anti-missile operations)
4 x 533mm torpedo tubes
2 x RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers
2 x Augusta-Westland Seeking or Dhruv helicopters
Ellora Electronic counter-measures package
March Advanced-Torpedo Defence System (jointly developed with the Naval Science and Technology Laboratory
Kavach chaff decoy system