The ceremony will be attended by personnel who have served onboard INS Ranjit in the past and will also include officers and sailors from the commissioning crew.
After having served for 36 years, the Indian Navy's frontline missile destroyer -- INS Ranjit -- will be decommissioned at the naval dockyard in Visakhapatnam on May 6. INS Ranjit was the third of the five Kashin-class destroyers built by erstwhile USSR, and was commissioned in 1983, a statement issued by the navy said.
Ranjit is originally a Kashin class destroyer and will carry the naval ensign for the last time at naval dockyard Vishakhapattanam in a ceremony to be presided over by former Navy Chief Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi, who is now Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar. The ceremony will be attended by personnel who have served onboard INS Ranjit in the past and will also include officers and sailors from the commissioning crew.
The destroyer was built as Yard 2203 in the 61 Communards shipyard in Nikolev in Ukraine in the late 1970s.
Its original Russian name is "Lovkly" meaning "agile".
The ship was commissioned as INS Ranjit on 15 September 1983 with Captain Vishnu Bhagwat at the helm. The officer went on to serve as the Chief of Naval Staff during the period 1996 to 98. In her maiden sortie, the ship traversed through Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
Rajput class destroyers were first to be fitted with Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles.
Over 36 years, the ship has the distinction of serving in both Western and Eastern seaboard and has been the flagship of both the Western and Eastern Fleets.
With a motto of 'Sada Rane Jayate' or 'Ever Victorious in Battle', INS Ranjit has been at the forefront in keeping the nation secure. The ship took part in PASSEX with US Navy in 1991-92 which was a precursor to the Malabar series of exercises with the US Navy.
It also took part in the first INDRA (India-Russia) exercise with the Russian Navy in 2003. The ship also participated in the first ever SAREX with PLA Navy in November 2003. The ship in 2007 took part in the first ever Malabar exercise in the Pacific Ocean as well as the first ever INDRA series of exercises in Russian waters. In addition, the ship participated in a number of operations aimed at keeping the nation secure. Some of these include IPKF operations, Op Talwar during Kargil conflict.
In 2003, the ship was deployed off Mozambique to provide security cover to the African Union Summit. The ship was also actively deployed as part of Navy's relief operations post-2004 Tsunami and cyclone Hud-hud in 2014. In recognition of her service to the nation, the ship was awarded Unit Citation in 2003-04 and 2009-10. The naval ensign and the commissioning pennant would be lowered for the last time on May 9 onboard INS Ranjit.
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