Indian navy vessel INS Kolkata came to the rescue of MV Ruen, a distressed navy vessel hijacked by pirates since December 14, 2023.
Assisted by INS Subhadra, Navy on Saturday rescued all 17 crew-members without injury and forced all 35 pirates to surrender in a rescue operation that lasted 40 hours.
INS Kolkata had carried out the interception of the Pirate Ship Ruen almost 1400 nm (2600km) from the Indian Coast, and forced the pirate ship to stop through calibrated actions which were augmented by INS Subhadra, HALE RPA, P8I maritime patrol aircraft & MARCOS PRAHARs air-dropped by C-17 aircraft.
The vessel has also been sanitised for presence of illegal arms, ammunition and contraband.
INS Kolkata is the lead ship of the Kolkata-class stealth guided-missile destroyers of the Indian Navy. Named after the Indian city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), she was constructed at Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) and was handed over to the navy on 10 July 2014 after completing her sea trials. The ship was officially commissioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a ceremony held on 16 August 2014.
