By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, July 17:
A submarine INS Sindhudhvaj was decommissioned after serving the nation for a glorious period of 35 years. at naval dockyard, in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in presence of top Indian Navy officers at the sunset on Saturday.
The traditional ceremony was conducted, with an overcast sky adding to the solemnity of the occasion when the Decommissioning Pennant was lowered and the submarine was paid off after a glorious patrol of 35 Years.
Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command was the Chief Guest for the ceremony. The Decommissioning event was attended by 15 of the former Commanding Officers including Commodore SP Singh (Retd), the Commissioning CO, and 26 Commissioning crew veterans, an Indian Navy official statement said.
The submarine was acquired from the Soviet Union in 1987. The submarine crest depicts a gray colour nurse shark and the name means flag bearer at sea. Sindhudhvaj, as the name suggests, was the flag bearer of indigenization and the Indian Navy’s efforts towards achieving “Atmanirbharta” (self-reliance) in the Russian-built Sindhughosh class submarines throughout her journey in the navy.
She had many firsts to her credit including operationalization of the indigenized sonar USHUS, Indigenised Satellite Communication systems Rukmani and MSS, Inertial Navigation System, and Indigenised Torpedo Fire Control System.
She also successfully undertook mating and personnel transfer with Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel and was the only submarine to be awarded the CNS Rolling trophy for Innovation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She was the first Kilo-class submarine and was part of Project 877 EKMs, the world’s commonly visible conventional submarines with 62 units currently in service across nine navies in the world. 877EKM submarine is powered by diesel-electric propulsion with two 1,000kW diesel generators and one 5,500hp propulsion motor.
India acquired eight such subs between 1986 and 1991. It later acquired two more submarines from the Russian Federation, between 1998 and 2000. They were the navy’s first submarines that could fire anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles from beneath the surface, making them a formidable force multiplier in the naval fleet.
