During its two-day visit to India, Russian ship Admiral Tributs exercised with the Indian Navy's indigenously designed and built destroyer, INS Kochi

During its two-day visit to India, Russian ship Admiral Tributs exercised with the Indian Navy's indigenously designed and built guided-missile destroyer, INS Kochi in the Arabian sea on January 14, Friday. Images from the naval exercise which was shared by the Indian Navy on its official Twitter handle show both the country's ships engaging in the international PASSEX exercise.

"The exercise showcased cohesiveness and interoperability between the two navies", it added. Meanwhile, the Russian Federation Navy's ship, Admiral Tributs was accompanied by two other ships including missile cruiser Varyag and Russian tanker Boris Butoma. All the three ships had arrived on a two-day "goodwill" visit to Cochin for participating in the joint Russian-Indian naval exercise PASSEX at the port of Cochin.

As stated by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the exercise between the Russian fleet and the Indian Navy had worked out the organization of communication, information exchange, and joint manoeuvring. The ships arrived at Kochi on Thursday morning and were received by the senior naval authorities in the background of the fanfare by the Naval Board, said the Indian Navy in a statement. Apart from the exercise, various professional interactions were also planned between both the navies during the two-day visit.

Notably, India and Russia continue to engage annually in naval exercises such as the Indra Navy which is a joint millennial military exercise conducted between both countries since 2003.

Know About INS Kochi

The indigenously designed second ship of the Kolkata-class stealth guided-missile destroyers was built under the code name of Project 15A for the Indian Navy. It was constructed by Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in Mumbai and was later commissioned to the Indian Navy services on September 30, 2015, after undergoing extensive sea trials.

Speaking about its design, INS Kochi has a displacement of 7,500 tons and is 164 metres in length and 17 metres at the beam. It is further propelled by gas turbines and designed to achieve speeds. Build with advanced stealth features, it has a bow-mounted sonar dome, which is the second of its kind in an indigenous naval platform.

Earlier, it took part in many other naval services including the 'Zayed Talwar 2021' bilateral exercise with the United Arab Emirates Navy's Baynunah-class guided missile corvette UAES Al-Dhafra in August 2021 followed by the Indian Navy's maiden naval exercise with the Royal Saudi Navy, 'Al-Mohed Al-Hindi' in Al Jubail.