Indian Navy Commissions of INS Vela
INS Vela, the fourth P75 Kalvari-class submarines, was commissioned today within the Indian Navy services in presence of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) Chairman & Managing Director, Vice Admiral Narayan Prasad (retd) and several other dignitaries. The event was also attended by Naval Group’s Executive Vice President for International Development, Alain Guillou and the local teams.
INS Vela is built by Indian shipyard MDL based on the Naval Group Scorpene design and is the second Kalvari-class submarine to be commissioned in 2021. Launched on May 6, 2019, the vessel successfully completed all major sea trials including weapon and sensor trials, despite COVID-19 restrictions, and was delivered to the Indian Navy on Nov 9, 2021. She joins INS Kalvari, Khanderi and Karanj which were commissioned respectively in December 2017, September 2019 and March 2021.
Alain Guillou, EVP International Development at Naval Group, said: “I would like to congratulate our partner MDL and the teams of Naval Group for the successful delivery of the fourth Scorpene submarine to the Indian Navy. Naval Group is very proud to be part of the P75 Kalvari programme which is a major component of the long-lasting Indo-French partnership. We are committed to significantly enhance the level of indigenisation in future projects of the Indian Navy by building upon and nurturing the know-how and skills in India.”
The commissioning of INS Vela highlights the success of indigenous submarines construction programme of the Indian chapter. This submarine has been completely built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) taking advantage of the successful technology transfer from Naval Group during the construction and trials of the first three boats. Six submarines of the P75 programme have been fitted with a number of equipment, built in India by qualified and highly trained industrial Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) which form the sound base of submarine building ecosystem of India. –shp/adj/aaa (PHOTO: Naval Group)