Indian Navy's INS Satpura arrives in Indonesia to participate in Exercise Komodo

Indian Navy warship INS Satpura on June 5, 2023, arrived at Makassar, Indonesia to participate in the 4th edition of the Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo (MNEK 2023). INS Satpura has been deployed to the ASEAN countries to strengthen defence ties.

The Komodo military exercise involves 47 participants and Indonesia has invited major naval powers countries like the United States and India along with other countries. It is an annual military exercise in the Indian and Pacific oceans by the Indonesian Navy. The first exercise was conducted in 2014 and consisted of 18 countries. It was organised around a cluster of islands including Batam, Natuna, and Anambas area.

INS Satpura had also participated in the 2012 Malabar exercise along with the United States Navy. The other ships which participated in the exercise included US Navy Carrier Strike Group 1, comprising USS Carl Vinson, embarked carrier air wing, Ticonderoga class guided missiles cruiser USS Bunker Hill and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey of the United States Navy.

INS Satpura’s prowess

INS Satpura is a Shivalik class Frigate and is built by Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai. The keel was laid on October 31, 2002, and was launched on June 4, 2004. It was completed in 2010 and underwent sea trials before being commissioned into the Indian Navy on August 20, 2011, into Eastern Naval Command headquartered in Visakhapatnam.

The Satpura has a displacement of 6,200 tonnes full load, It has a length of 142.5 metres, beam of 16.9m and Draught of 4.5m. It has 2xPielstick 16 PA6 STC Diesel engines, 15,200 SHP (11,300 KW), 2x GE LM2500+ and 33,600 SHP. Its propulsion is boost turbines in CODOG configuration, its speed is 32 knots and 22 knots for diesel engines.

It can carry a total of 257 crew members, which also includes 35 officers. It is equipped with BEL Ajanta electronic warfare suite and also anti-air missiles and has 32 cells VLS launched Barak-1 missiles. INS Satpura is equipped with a mix of Indian, Russian and Western weapon systems. These include the 3.0-inch Otobreda naval gun, Klub and Brahmos supersonic anti-ship missiles, Shtil-1 anti-aircraft missiles, RBU 6000 anti Submarine rocket launchers and DTA-53-956 Torpedo launchers.