India Gifts In-service Missile Corvette to Vietnam

India’s defence ministry said it will hand over an indigenously-built in-service Missile Corvette INS Kirpan to Vietnam People’s Navy.

On June 19, Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart General Phan Van Gang in New Delhi to discuss progress on various bilateral defence cooperation initiatives. Gifting of the corvette was announced during this time.

As part of his engagements, the Defence Minister of Vietnam also visited DRDO headquarters and discussed ways to enhance defence industrial capabilities by cooperation in defence research and joint production.

INS Kirpan is a Khukri-class corvette built to replace the Indian Navy’s ageing Petya II ships. It was built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) and was commissioned in early 1991.

Khukri corvettes have a displacement of over 1,200 tons and can reach speeds of upto 24 knots (44kmph). These 91m-long boats have a range of over 7,000km, and can accommodate a helicopter (HAL Chetak or HAL Dhruv) along with 112 people.