New Delhi: Indian Naval Landing Craft Utility (LCU) L58, the eighth and last ship of the Landing Craft Utility (LCU) Mark IV Class, was commissioned into the Indian Navy at Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands on Thursday.
Commander-in-Chief, Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN) Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was the Chief Guest and Chairman and Managing Director, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE) Rear Admiral Vipin Kumar Saxena, IN (Retd) was present for the event.
According to a press statement from the Ministry of Defence, Commander Krishan K Yadav read the Commissioning Warrant as the first Commanding Officer of the ship. The ship is manned by a motivated team of five officers and 50 sailors. Indigenously designed and built by GRSE, Kolkata, the ship's commissioning has added one more feather in the cap of the nation's 'Make in India' & 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' programme in the field of warship design and construction.
The LCU 58 is an amphibious ship that can carry 160 troops, in addition to its crew. With a displacement of 900 tons, the ship is capable of carrying various types of combat vehicles such as Main Battle Tanks (MBTs), BMPs, Armoured Vehicles, trucks, etc. The ship measures 63 meters in length and is fitted with two MTA 4,000 series engines, which are capable of propelling the ship at speeds of up to 15 knots (28 kmph).
The ship is also fitted with an advanced Electronic Support Measure (ESM) suite to intercept enemy radar transmissions, an advanced Integrated Bridge System (IBS) and a sophisticated Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS), which allow single station monitoring of the ship's navigational and machinery equipment respectively.