Indian Navy begins arriving for IBSA exercise

Apr 21, 2008
Author: P&S

Two ships of the Indian Navy are due to arrive in Durban on this Friday (25 April) and will be open to the public during two days of the coming long weekend.

The ships, the INS Mumbai (D63) and INS Karmukh will berth at the N-Shed passenger terminal en route to Simon’s Town where they are to take part in a large naval exercise with ships of the South African and Brazilian Navies – the so-called IBSA exercise.

On Sunday and Monday (27 and 28 April) the Durban public will be welcome to visit the two ships between the hours of 10h00 and 16h00.

INS Mumbai is a modern Delhi class destroyer making her second visit to Durban. She was built in 2001 and displaces 6,700 tons. Her crew numbers around 360 and the well armed ship equipped with two Sea King helicopters and a range of missiles, guns and torpedoes carries a powerful punch. INS Mumbai is Indian-designed and built and a product of that country’s growing ability to provide its own naval requirements.

INS Karmukh only recently completed fitting out. She is a large missile corvette of the Khukri class and displaces 1350 tons but is large enough to host a helicopter flight deck to strengthen her patrol abilities at sea. Armaments include missiles and some lighter guns and the ship has a crew of about 80 personnel.