Indian Navy takes delivery of largest indigenous patrol vessel INS Sumitra

The largest indigenously- developed offshore patrol vessel INS Sumitra was on Thursday delivered to the Indian Navy here by the state-owned Goa Shipyard Limited delivered. The warship delivered to the Navy was the fourth in the series of 105-metre vessels built by the shipyard for the Navy and the third to be delivered in the last 10 months."The vessel was handed over by GSL chief Rear Admiral (Retd) Shekhar Mital to the Commanding Officer-Designate of the warship Commander Milind Mokashi," a GSL release said. INS Sumitra, which is Navy's largest Offshore Patrol Vessel, is fitted with large number of state-of-the-art indigenous electronic, communication and weapon systems, it said.

The vessel will help meet the increasing requirements of the Navy for undertaking ocean surveillance and surface warfare operations in order to prevent infiltration and transgression of maritime sovereignty and is suitable for monitoring sea lanes of communication, defence of offshore oil installations and other critical offshore national assets. "The vessel can be deployed for escorting high value ships and fleet support operations," it said. The first three of the 105-metre series of vessels include the INS Saryu, INS Sunayana and INS Sumedha.