INS ''Kirpan'' is the name of a formerly commissioned by the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

. It was recently decommissioned and handed over to Vietnam People's Navy in a

ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil ...

presided over by Adm.

R. Hari Kumar Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar (born 12 April 1962) is retired flag officer in the Indian Navy. He served as 25th Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS). Previously, he served as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command. In h ...

and Rear Adm. Pham Manh Hung, Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Chief of Staff,

Vietnam People's Navy The Vietnam People's Navy (VPN; ), internally the Naval Service (), also known as the Vietnamese People's Navy or simply Vietnam/Vietnamese Navy (), is the naval branch of the Vietnam People's Army and is responsible for the protection of the ...

History

It is the first active warship that

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

has ever gifted to another country, that is the Vietnam People's Navy, which will use it in the future with as Ship 26. The warship was gifted to

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

after a visit by Vietnam's Defence Minister Gen Phan Van Giang in June, 2023. It is another in a long list of warships gifted by India to other countries. The indigenously built missile corvette INS Kirpan entered Cam Ranh International Port on July 8 after sailing out of

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

on 29 June 2023 and was to be officially handed over to Vietnamese People’s Navy by month end. Kirpan was transferred to

and was decommissioned from

service on 22 July 2023 after 32 years of service. It is the

namesake A namesake is a person, place, or thing bearing the name of another. Most commonly, it refers to an individual who is purposely named after another (e.g. John F. Kennedy Jr would be the namesake of John F. Kennedy). In common parlance, it may ...

of INS Kirpan that was a Type 14

Blackwood-class frigate The Type 14 ''Blackwood'' class were a ship class of minimal "second-rate" anti-submarine warfare frigates. Built for the Royal Navy during the 1950s at a time of increasing threat from the Soviet Union's submarine fleet, they served until the ...

commissioned in 1959 into the Indian Navy, that participated in 1971 India-Pakistan War and was almost sunk by

PNS Hangor PNS/M ''Hangor'' (S-131) (nicknamed: "Shark") was a diesel-electric submarine that served in the Pakistan Navy from 1969 until its decommissioning in 2006. It is the first submarine to sink a ship after World War II. ''Hangor'' (S131) was th ...

References

Khukri-class corvettes Corvettes of the Indian Navy 1988 ships Ships built in India {{India-mil-stub