INS Vela, the fourth out of six Kalvari class submarines, is likely to be commissioned in the Indian Navy before the end of November. It is expected that the commissioning ceremony will either be done by external affairs minister S Jaishankar or the outgoing Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh.
INS Vela has been being built by Mazagaon dock shipbuilders and designed by the French naval group. INS Vela is a diesel-attack submarine but it will act as sea denial as well as access denial to opponents. It is also expected that this Exocet missile-carrying submarine may be integrated with DRDO designed air-independent propulsion technology at a laser stage as part of its mid-life refit.
Also, the Indian Navy is soon getting a guided-missile destroyer, INS ‘Visakhapatnam’, being commissioned in its fleet. The destroyer is expected to be commissioned by defence minister Rajnath Singh. The navy has said that all the four destroyers of the Visakhapatnam class including INS Mormugao, Imphal, and Porbandar, will be launched by 2022 with the destroyers adding power to the Indian military.