GRSE delivers craft utility warship to Indian Navy

Kolkata: Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) delivered L-55, a Mark IV Landing Craft Utility (LCU) Vessel, to the Indian Navy on Friday. At a ceremony GRSE chairman & managing director Rear Admiral (retd) V. K. Saxena handed over the warship to the commanding officer of the ship Lieutenant Commander Abhishek Kumar at the shipyard.

Chief Staff Officer (Technical) of Andaman and Nicobar Command Brigadier SY Deshmukh carried out the final inspection of the ship prior to acceptance by the Navy. L-55 was the fifth in the series of eight LCU vessels being built by the state-run defence shipyard to the Indian Navy.

It was also the sixth warship delivered by the GRSE to the Navy in last 16 months. The three more LCUs are in advanced stages of construction and are expected to be delivered to the Navy over the next one year, the defence ministry said in a statement.

These amphibious warships, developed by the GRSE in-house design team, are unique in their design & operations having length of 62.8 metres and achieving a speed of 15 knots with a low draught of 1.8 m.

Fitted with close to 90 per cent indigenous content the Mark IV LCU Vessels are a further Improved Version of the Mark III LCU Vessels presently being used by the Indian Navy. The first ship of the Mark IV LCU Vessels IN LCU L-51 was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2016.