| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | INS Khukri |
| Namesake: | khukri |
| Builder: | J. Samuel White, Cowes |
| Laid down: | 29 December 1955 |
| Launched: | 20 November 1956 |
| Commissioned: | 16 July 1958 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed and sunk by Pakistani submarine Hangor on 9 December 1971 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Type 14 (Blackwood) frigate[1] |
| Type: | Frigate[1] |
| Displacement: | 1,180 tons (1,456 tonnes) full load[1] |
| Length: | 300 ft (91 m)pp 310 ft (94 m)oa[1] |
| Beam: | 33 ft (10 m)[1] |
| Draught: | 15.5 ft (4.7 m)[1] |
| Propulsion: | Y-100 plant; 2 x Babcock & Wilcox boilers, steam turbines on 1 shaft, 15,000 shp (11 MW) |
| Speed: | 27.8 knots (51 km/h)maximum, 24.5 knots (45 km/h) sustained[1] |
| Range: | 5,200 nautical miles (9,630 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h) |
| Complement: | 150[1] |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
Radar Type 974 navigation |
| Armament: |
3 x 40 mm Bofors gun Mark 7 (quarterdeck mount later removed)[1] |
INS Khukri was a British Type 14 (Blackwood) frigate of the Indian Navy. She was sunk off the coast of Diu, Gujarat, India by the Pakistan Navy Daphne class submarine Hangor on 9 December 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. This was the first warship sunk in action by a submarine since World War II. It remains the Indian navy's only warship to be lost in war to date.[1][2]
| Sinking of INS Khurki | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Naval Conflict of Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
Pakistan
Pakistan Navy |
India
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| CDR Ahmed Tasnim | Capt. Mahendra Nath Mulla † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| PNS Hangor (Submarine) | INS Khukri (Frigate) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | INS Khurki sunk[1] 194 sailors lost their lives[3] |
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Contents |
After the beginning of hostilities on 3 December 1971, Indian Naval radio detection equipment identified a submarine lurking in the vicinity of Diu harbour about 35 miles south-west of the port of Diu.
The 14 Frigate Squadron of the Western Fleet was dispatched on a hunter-killer mission to destroy the submarine.[1] The 14 Frigate Squadron normally consisted of three ships Khukri, Kirpan and Kuthar (all named after types of dagger). But only two were involved in the incident as Kuthar's boiler room was being repaired in Bombay.[1] One reason that may have prompted the decision to deploy two obsolete Blackwood class frigates against a modern Daphne class submarine was that the Indian Navy lacked sufficient numbers of airborne anti-submarine planes.[4]
In the early hours of December 9, Hangor picked up two sonar contacts in the area.[1] The sonar and radar transmissions identified them as warships but Hangor failed to intercept them and lost contact when the range increased.[1]
The submarine sighted the Squadron on the evening of 9 December. Khukri was still not aware of the submarine's presence[5] and continued doing slow speed on a steady course because she was testing an improved version of the 170/174 sonar, which required a slow speed to increase detection, despite the fact that moving on slow speed was against Indian anti-submarine doctrine.[1] At 19:57 hrs Hangor fired a homing torpedo on a sonar approach at Kirpan.[1] The torpedo failed to explode[5][6] and was detected by Kirpan which turned away and fired anti-submarine mortars.[1] Khukri increased its speed and turned towards the submarine, which then fired a second torpedo directed at Khukri.[1] The torpedo struck Khukri and exploded after 5 minutes under its oil tanks.[1][5] According to the Pakistani submarine captain, Commander (later Vice Admiral) Ahmed Tasnim the ship sank within two minutes.[6] Other sources claim that Khukri was struck by three torpedoes before going down.[7]
After a few minutes, Kirpan turned back to attack Hangor with depth charges, as the anti-submarine mortars of Kirpan had broken down.[1] Hangor then fired another torpedo at Kirpan before turning away and exiting at maximum speed.[1][5] Kirpan outran the torpedo and returned later with another ship, INS Katchal, to rescue the survivors from Khukri.[1]
To date, INS Khukri is the only ship lost in the history of the Indian Navy.[1][2][8] Over 18 officers and 176 sailors were lost in the sinking.[2][8] The captain, Mahendra Nath Mulla, choose to go down with the sinking ship. He refused to abandon ship, and passed his life-jacket to a junior officer. He has remained so far the only Indian captain to go down with a vessel to his watery grave.[2][8] He was posthumously awarded India's second-highest military honour, the Maha Vir Chakra.[2][8]
A memorial to the dead sailors exists at Diu. The memorial constitutes a full-scale model of INS Khukri encased in a glass house, placed atop a hillock facing the sea. The memorial was inaugurated by Vice Admiral Madhvendra Singh as the flag officer commanding-in-chief.[3]
Responsibility for errors by Indian naval officers related to the sinking has caused some controversy. The naval officer who led the inquiry into the sinking, Benoy Bhushan, has claimed that India's official naval history invented fictional accounts to cover up bungling and a surviving sailor from the frigate, Chanchal Singh Gill, has called for an investigation and withdrawal of gallantry awards to negligent officers in the squadron.[9]
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