Indian Navy showcases its prowess in Day at Sea

ON BOARD INS SHIVALIK: The Indian Navy today showcased the might of its fleet of warships, submarines and choppers in the Bay of Bengal as part of Navy Day celebrations.

Six major combatants of the Eastern Naval fleet from Vishakapatnam and INS Betwa from Western fleet arrived at Chennai to take part in the celebrations today.

Naval Ships Ranvijay Shakti, Betwa, Kora, Vibhuti and Nishank sailed about 50 nautical miles from Chennai harbour to Bay of Bengal with 3,000 personnel on board, officials said.

INS Ranvijay, a guided missile destroyer of Soviet origin, has served the Navy for nearly three decades.

A naval official said it is one of the most powerful ships in the Navy's arsenal equipped with long range surface to surface missiles -- BrahMos, anti-submarine torpedoes and surface to air missiles.

Rear Admiral, Flag Officer Commanding (Eastern fleet), Vishakapatnam, S V Bhokare said, "It is a great honour for the Eastern Naval command to host Families Day of Chennai and this is for the people of Chennai."

Bhokare said INS Kora is a missile corvette, INS Vibhuti and INS Nishank are missile boats armed with "long-range surface to surface missiles and guns".

INS Betwa, a guided missile vessel from the Western fleet, also took part in the exercise, he said.

To a query he said, "a joint exercise between India, United States and Japan -- Malabar Exercise -- will begin on October 13 and go on till October 19".

Some of the exercises today included ships moving fast towards craft manned by personnel posing as pirates, a submarine demonstration and a search and rescue mission by Naval helicopters.