INS Rajput decommissioned
On 21 May 2021, a glorious era came to an end with the decommissioning of the first destroyer of the Indian Navy, INS Rajput. INS Rajput, the lead ship of the Kashin-class destroyers built by the erstwhile USSR was commissioned on 4 May 1980 and rendered yeoman service to the Indian Navy for over 41 years. INS Rajput was constructed in the 61 Communards Shipyard in Nikolaev (present-day Ukraine) under her original Russian name ‘Nadezhny’ meaning ‘Hope’. The keel of the ship was laid on 11 September 1976 and she was launched on 17 September 1977. The ship was commissioned as INS Rajput on 4 May 1980 at Poti, Georgia. Over her four decades of glorious service to the nation, the ship has the distinction of serving in both Western and Eastern Fleets.