What is Project 15B?

• • Between 2014 and 2016, the Indian Navy commissioned three guided missile destroyers of Kolkata class under a project codenamed ‘15A’. The Kolkata class included INS Kolkata, INS Kochi and INS Chennai. 

• A ship class signifies a group of ships built with similar tonnage, usage, capabilities and weaponry. The class is identified by its lead ship.

• These ships were a step ahead of their precursor Delhi class of ships, which included INS Delhi, INS Mysore and INS Mumbai, built under Project 15 and commissioned between 1997 and 2001.
• Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL), one of India’s key Defence Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), has built all these ships. 
• In 2011, Project 15B was initiated for building the advanced variants of the Kolkata class guided missile destroyers., in this case INS Visakhapatnam.
• The lead ship of Project 15B, INS Visakhapatnam was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2021 and the second ship INS Mormugao in 2022. The fourth ship, INS Surat, was launched in May last year.

Why in News?

• The third of four P-15B ‘Visakhapatnam’ class stealth guided missile destroyers, INS Imphal, was recently commissioned into the Indian Navy.

About INS Imphal

• Built by Mazgaon Dock Limited, the ship boasts a high indigenous content of approximately 75 per cent.

• • With a length of 163 meters and 7,400 tons displacement, Imphal is a formidable naval presence.
  • The ship has a ‘combined gas and gas’ (COGAG) configuration integrating four gas turbines. The propulsion system allows the ship to reach a maximum speed of 30 knots and a maximum range of 4000 nautical miles.

• The ship is a potent and versatile platform equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors, including surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, and torpedoes. 

• Imphal has the unique distinction of being the first warship to be named after a city in the Northeast. 

Strategic Significance

• Technically, destroyers are a category of warships that have high speed, manoeuvrability and longer endurance. They are designed to be part of naval formations like a fleet or a carrier battle group also known as carrier strike group.
• The modern destroyers that are swift, sleek and difficult to detect, primarily protect the fleets and carrier battle groups from the short-range attackers from surface, air and sub-surface. 
• The guided-missile destroyers are the destroyers that are armed with guided missiles for anti-aircraft warfare, anti-surface operations and anti-submarine warfare.
• The state-of-the-art stealth feature makes Visakhapatnam class have the radar signature of a very small ship. A very high indigenous component gives this platform a strategic edge.