The Diplomat:
State-owned Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) has launched India’s third Project 15B Visakhapatnam-class guided-missile destroyer, the future INS Imphal, in Mumbai on April 20, the Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement.
The future INS Imphal is part of a planned fleet of four Visakhapatnam-class surface combatants. The first-of-class Visakhapatnam was launched in April 2015 and is expected to enter service with the Indian Navy in 2021. The second ship of the type, Mormugao, was launched in September 2016 and is slated to join the fleet in 2022. The third and fourth Visakhapatnam-class guided missile destroyers are expected to enter service in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Designed by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design, the Visakhapatnam-class is based on the older Project 15A Kolkata-class destroyers design with Russia’s Northern Design Bureau, enlisted as a consultant, to help reduce the size of the ship’s superstructure.
