The Indian Navy has taken delivery of its second Project 15B stealth guided-missile destroyer Mormugao from Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL).
The ceremony took place on November 24, a little under a year after the ship started sea trials in December 2021. The keel of Mormugao was laid in June 2015 and the ship was launched on 17 September 2016.
INS Visakhapatnam, the lead ship in the class, was handed over in October last year, some ten years after the first contract for the ship-class was signed.
Designed by the Warship Design Bureau and built by MDL, the four ships are a follow-on project of the Kolkata class (Project 15A) destroyers. P15B ships are christened after major cities from all four corners of the country, Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal and Surat.
The design has largely maintained the hull form, propulsion machinery, many platform equipment and major weapons and sensors as the Kolkata class to benefit from series production.
The 163-meter warships have a full load displacement of 7400 tons and a maximum speed of 30 knots. According to the defense ministry, the overall indigenous content of the project is approximately 75 percent.
P15B destroyers will feature locally-developed medium range surface-to-air missiles, BrahMos surface-to-surface missiles, 76mm Super Rapid gun mounts, and torpedo tube and anti-submarine indigenous rocket launchers from Larsen & Toubro.
