P61 By Andrei Pinkov

SSN-25 By Andrei Pinkov

<Kanwa news 14th March Abu Dhabi>At the recent IDEX99, India exhibited the latest Indian-made Project 25A-model escort vessel KORA P61. This vessel of 1400-ton displacement and 26 knots was put to use on August 10, 1998. It is equipped with sixteen Russian SSN-25 ship-to-ship missiles with a launch range of over 130 kilometers. In addition, it also has two IGLA ship-to-air missile launchers, four PK10 chaffs, one AK176 gun, two AK630 short-range air-defense guns, and two Russian-made PK10 decoy launchers. Captain HCS Bisht accepted an interview from the KWIC reporter. According to him, there are fourteen officers and men and a crew of 120 sailors on board. India has planned to build a total of four vessels of this kind. KORA is the first one. Objectively, KORA is very crudely made and is totally unlike a newly-made vessel. The welding seams on the vessel body are highly visible. Equipped with a combination of the limited Indian technology and the best, imported weapons, however, KORA still possesses an effective fighting capability. What merits attention is that, of all the escort vessels of the same class, KORA is well known to produce the strongest firepower( Anderi Pinkov).

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