After 36 years of glorious service, Indian Navy’s front-line missile destroyer INS Ranjit will be decommissioned on Monday.
Commissioned September 15, 1983, INS Ranjit was the third of the five Kashin-class destroyers built by erstwhile USSR.
The ship will now be decommissioned at a solemn ceremony at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam. The ceremony will be attended by personnel who have served onboard INS Ranjit in the past and will also include officers and sailors from the commissioning crew.
The chief guest for the ceremony would be retired Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi, Lieutenant Governor Andaman and Nicobar.
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INS Ranjit was constructed in the 61 Communards shipyard in the town of Nikolev, which now falls in Ukraine. It was given a Russian name ‘Lovkly’ which means ‘Agile’.
In her maiden sortie, the ship traversed through the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and the Arabian Sea when it was commissioned in 1983.
During its service, the ship has served in both Western and Eastern seaboard.
The ship participated in a number of operations include IPKF operations, Operation Talwar during Kargil conflict.
In 2003, the ship was deployed off Mozambique to provide security cover to the African Union Summit. The ship was also actively deployed as part of Navy’s relief operations post-2004 Tsunami and cyclone Hud-Hud in 2014.
It took part in many joined naval exercises with several nations like the United States, China and Russia. The ship in 2007 took part in the first ever Malabar exercise in the Pacific Ocean as well as the first ever INDRA series of exercises in Russian waters.
She has been manned by 27 commissions with the last commission taking charge of the ship in 2017.
As the sun sets on May 6, the Naval Ensign and the Commissioning pennant will be lowered for the last time onboard INS Ranjit, symbolising the end of the Ranjit era in the Indian Navy.
(ANI)