Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

INS Ranjit is the third of the five Rajput Class Destroyers built for the Indian Navy. Ranjit was commissioned on November 24th 1983. Ranjit was laid down by Indian request under the Soviet name Lovkiy at the 61 Kommunara Shipbuilding Plant in Nikolayev, Ukraine on June 29th 1977.She had previously been planned to be named Porazhayushchy on May 16th of that year, and was built as a Project 61MZ large Anti-Submarine ship (NATO reporting name Kashin Class Destroyer). She was launched on June 16th 1979 and added to the list of ships of the Soviet Navy on October 30th 1981. Commissioned into the Black Sea Fleet for temporary duty on July 7th 1983, she was transferred to the Indian Navy and renamed Ranjit on November 24th.She is still in active service as of 2019.

Here are some nice views of this old sov design serving in the Indian Fleet! Weapons everywhere..... DFO

Rajput Class Destroyer INS Ranvijay pictured on June 16th 2019.
Built at Mikolaiv Shipyards,Ukraine in 1988,the Rajput Class are modified versions of Soviet Kashin Class Destroyers also known as Kashin II Class. The Rajput Class inherited their Anti-Aircraft and ASW roles for aircraft carrier task-force defense against Submarines, low-flying aircraft, and cruise missiles from the Kashin Class. They were the first ships in the Indian Navy to deploy the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile systems. The systems were deployed during a mid-life refit of the ships. The missile system has four missiles in inclined bow mounted launchers replacing two SS-N-2D Styx AShM launchers in INS Rajput and eight cell VLS system replacing aft S-125M (NATO: SA-N-1) SAM launcher in INS Ranvir and INS Ranvijay.The Indian Navy is planning to upgrade the propulsion of the ships with indigenously developed Kaveri Marine Gas Turbine (KMGT) engine. The Gas Turbine Research Establishment of DRDO has been developing this engine which is currently in testing phase.