Author: Rainbow Kursk
According to the news released by the Indian Navy, on January 18, local time, the Indian Navy's old-fashioned destroyer "Ranville" exploded, resulting in the death of 3 sailors of the Indian Navy.
According to the news, there was an unfortunate incident at the Mumbai Naval Shipyard, in which 3 sailors died in an explosion in the cabin of the destroyer "Ranville". According to sources quoted by the Times of India, the accident injured 11 sailors who are being treated at the local naval hospital.
Photo: The Indian Navy destroyer "Ranville", which belongs to the old Soviet Kasin class destroyer.
The old ship is a Soviet-era Kasin-class guided-missile destroyer that has been in service with the Indian Navy since 1986 and has been in service for 36 years.
In October 2021, the destroyer participated in the "Malabar" military exercise jointly organized by the United States, Japan, India and Australia, but a fire broke out a few days after the exercise, and 4 crew members were burned, so the ship was pulled into the shipyard for repair, and the result was even more unfortunate to have an explosion!
Photo: Indian media coverage of the incident.
The Cassin-class destroyers were the world's first warships to rely entirely on steam turbine propulsion. Before the service of the Modern-class guided-missile destroyer, it was the most advanced guided missile destroyer of the Soviet Navy, with a full load displacement of 4700 tons, with 2 twin-mounted SA-N-1 "Goa" ship-to-air missile launchers, with a certain regional air defense capability, in addition to a variety of anti-submarine capabilities, mainly performing ocean-going anti-submarine, fleet air defense and other tasks.
India decided to introduce such destroyers in the 1970s, and made certain improvements, known as Cassin II-class destroyers, and India named it Rajput-class guided-missile destroyers, and introduced 5 ships successively, which is also the first time India has introduced Soviet-style destroyers, and in the past it was mainly equipped with British warships.
India emphasized the anti-ship capability of the ship, so it added 4 sets of "Styx" anti-ship missile launchers on it, and in that year, this destroyer that could defend the air and anti-ship, and also anti-submarine can be said to be the head of the Indian Navy, which is more powerful than the Chinese naval brigade in the same period.
Photo: Indian Navy Kasin/Rajput-class guided-missile destroyer on a visit to Shanghai.
But with the advancement of time and technology, such warships quickly fell behind, and India also began to build Delhi-class and Calcutta-class guided-missile destroyers. However, India's own shipbuilding technology is still not good, the number and quality of newly designed destroyers are not up to date with the world's advanced level, in order to "make the face fat", the Cassin/Rajput class guided-missile destroyer, an old warship of the 1970s, is still unwilling to retire.
Since 2007, the Indian Navy has converted several old destroyers into new missiles, such as the "BrahMos" anti-ship missile, the "Earth" ballistic missile, etc. Although the test is more important, there is no lack of psychology of transforming it into an alternative killer. It is just that although this kind of warship seems to have a large displacement, because the internal space of Soviet warships is generally small, it is difficult to accommodate so much equipment, and these transformations have laid hidden dangers for them.
Photo: The Indian Navy's Kasin/Rajput-class guided-missile destroyers are fitted with supersonic anti-ship missile silos.
The multiple fires of the destroyer "Ranville" are manifestations of these hidden dangers. The messiness and mismanagement of the Indian shipyard is obvious to all, and the entry of this old-fashioned destroyer into the Indian shipyard is almost equivalent to the death penalty, and sure enough, it exploded during the maintenance process and killed and injured the sailors.
This is not the first strange explosion in the Indian shipyard, and another time is that the Kilo-class submarine directly exploded in the torpedo explosion during the repair of the shipyard, sinking the entire submarine to the bottom of the water.
Photo: The Indian Navy's Kasin/Rajput-class guided-missile destroyer is long overdue.
In fact, the Indian Navy also knows that such warships can no longer go to the Indian Ocean to "wave", and has long thought of retiring. However, on the one hand, the Indian shipyards are not able to give strength and cannot build qualified domestic warships; on the other hand, the Indian high-level military is exhausted, thinking of maintaining a naval surface ship unit with a larger organization, and can negotiate conditions and cooperate with the United States and Japan.
The Indian Navy is also very aggrieved!
The Chinese Type 051 Brigade class guided-missile destroyers of the same era as the Kasin/Rajput-class guided-missile destroyers have all been retired and have begun to live in various cities. One by one, the new 10,000-ton large-scale drive sailed to the ocean, showing the majesty of the red flag flying. The unattainable object of the year is now the product of the old era of the old dragon clock, and the best ownership of the Kasin/Rajput-class guided-missile destroyer is the Goa shipbreaking yard!
Photo: The Brigade Commander, a contemporary of the Cassin Class, has all retired from active service.