President Murmu undertakes sortie in submarine INS Vaghsheer

• President Droupadi Murmu undertook an over two-hour sortie onboard the indigenously-built submarine INS Vaghsheer on the Western seaboard on December 28.

• Murmu became the second President to experience a submarine sortie. 

• In February 2006, APJ Abdul Kalam undertook a similar sortie onboard INS Sindhu Rakshak.

• Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi accompanied President Murmu during the over two-hour sortie in the Kalvari class INS Vaghsheer from the Karwar naval base in Karnataka.

• The President is also the Supreme Commander of the armed forces.

• President Murmu’s embarkation onboard the submarine reflected the continued engagement of the Supreme Commander with the armed forces in operational settings.

• In November 2024, the President witnessed an operational demonstration by the Indian Navy onboard the indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

Key points on INS Vaghsheer:

• INS Vaghsheer, the sixth and final submarine of the P75 Scorpene project, was commissioned into the Navy in January.

• It is designed to undertake a wide range of missions, including anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, area surveillance, and special operations.

• Armed with wire-guided torpedoes, anti-ship missiles and advanced sonar systems, the submarine also features modular construction, allowing for future upgrades such as the integration of Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) technology.

Why is it named Vaghsheer?

• Named after sandfish, a deadly deep water sea predator of the Indian Ocean, the first submarine ‘Vaghsheer’ was commissioned in December 1974 and decommissioned in April 1997. 

• The new submarine is the incarnation of its earlier version, as according to naval parlance a ship never ceases to exist. 

• Even after a ship/submarine is decommissioned, a new ship/submarine replaces the old one with the same name.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)