Staff Correspondent
The fourth of the Indian Navy’s stealth Scorpene-class submarines of Project 75 was been launched at the Kanhoji Angre Wet Basin of Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) last week. These submarines are being built at Mazagon Dock Limited, with the main collaborator being M/s Naval group, France. Secretary Defence Production Dr Ajay Kumar was the Chief Guest for the Launch ceremony and Mrs Veena Ajay Kumar was the lady dignitary who performed the ceremony.
The submarine has been named ‘Vela’ after an earlier submarine, which was the lead submarine, of the erstwhile Vela class, the second batch of the Foxtrot class submarines acquired from USSR. The steel cutting for this submarine commenced in Jul 2009. The submarine has completed joining of all its sections. This submarine would be using Indigenous developed batteries by M/s Exide, India. Post launch the submarine will commence the sea trials. The launch ceremony also signifies that four submarine of this project would be afloat and soon joining the Indian Navy’s submarine fleet.