On 16 October the Indian Navy commissioned its first Multi-Purpose Vessel, INS Samarthak. Vice-President Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan commissioned the ship at Karwar, Karnataka. The ship was built by Larsen & Toubro at the Kattupalli Shipyard near Chennai. Samarthak is the first of two MPVs, which are designed for maritime patrol, torpedo recovery, target deployment/recovery, trials platform and disaster relief.
Samarthak and her future sistership Utkarsh, displace ~4,000 tons and are 107 metres in length. The ships will armed with a 76mm gun, two 30mm, both single 533mm and 324mm torpedo launchers as well as a RBU-6000 rocket launcher. The design has aviation facilities for a Dhruv III helicopter. The ships’ complement is 116 and the maximum speed is 15 knots. The MPVs are of Indian design with over 75% local content.
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