The Indian Navy has announced that it will decommission on Friday the INS Rajput, a guided missile destroyer, at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhaptnam.
The INS Rajput was the first ship in a class of five destroyers (which are fast, medium-sized warships) ordered in two batches from the erstwhile Soviet Union in the late 1970s.
The INS Rajput was commissioned in Nikolayev (in present-day Ukraine) on May 4, 1980. The ship was commissioned in the presence of I.K. Gujral, then India's ambassador to the USSR, who would rise to be prime minister. Her first commanding officer was Gulab Mohanlal Hiranandani, who would retire as vice admiral and author detailed histories of the Indian Navy's growth and evolution.
The design of the Rajput class was derived from the Soviet Union's Kashin class of warships.
The Rajput and her four sister ships were the first class of Indian Navy ships to have missiles as their primary armament, carrying the SS-N-2D Styx missile for attacking enemy ships and the S-125 surface-to-air missile for defending against enemy air attack at close range. An older variant of the Styx was used by the Indian Navy to attack Karachi in the 1971 war.
The Rajput could also embark a Kamov Ka-25 helicopter for tracking and hunting enemy submarines. The Rajput and her sister ships were powered by gas turbine engines, which marked a departure from previous large warships operated by the Indian Navy that relied on steam turbines. Gas turbines are regarded as being more compact and efficient than steam turbines.
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In her five decades of service, the Rajput saw many operational deployments, such as Operation Aman off Sri Lanka to assist IPKF, Operation Pawan for patrolling duties off the coast of Sri Lanka, Operation Cactus to resolve the hostage situation off the Maldives and Operation Crowsnest off Lakshadweep, All India Radio reported.
In her later years, the INS Rajput became the trial ship of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which offered a quantum leap over the SS-N-2D Styx. The Rajput was one of the first Indian Navy ships to carry the BrahMos operationally, with the supersonic missiles replacing the SSN-2D Styx launchers in 2003.
