Indian navy ship on goodwill visit |04 February 2008
The first phase of the survey started yesterday and will go on until February 11 while the second one will be carried out from February 13 – 23.
The INS Investigator is an indigenously constructed ship and was commissioned on January 11, 1990 at GRSE, Kolkata and has since completed 18 years of distinguished service.
The ship is under the operational command of the Western Naval Command, Mumbai and is based at the newly developed Naval Base at Karwar, Karnataka.
The primary role of the ship is to carry out hydrographic and oceanographic surveys allotted by National Hydrographic Office (NHO), Dehradun, each year through Hydrographic Instructions.
During the last year the ship, which has a complement of 15 officers and 180 sailors, had carried out various major survey operations on the west coast of India.
Among the state of the art digital surveying equipment that the ship is equipped with include deep and shallow Multibeam Swath sounding systems, Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers, Automatic Data Logging and Processing systems, deep water profilers for measuring sound velocity, conductivity, temperature, Digital Side Scan Sonar’s, modern digital echo sounders with built-in DGPS receivers, HF and MF DGPS transmitting systems, Geodetic GPS receivers.
In addition, the ship has four fully equipped survey motor boats capable of under taking survey up to 250m depth at speeds of over 20 knots.
The ship, which has an integral helicopter (Chetak) which is extensively deployed to support the survey operations, also has the capability to undertake diving operations and is well equipped with trained divers and equipment.
The ship is also fitted with Anti Aircraft Gun, MMG, LMG and small arms, and can be deployed for seaward defence, patrols, rescue, relief, and hospital ship role during operational requirement.
INS Investigator is presently under the command of Commander Peush Pawsey, a specialist in Hydrography and a Charge Hydrographic Surveyor who was commissioned in the Indian Navy on January 1, 1992. He is an alumnus of Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun, National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla and Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.
Commander Pawsey, who has carried out various afloat and ashore appointments, assumed command of INS Investigator on May 11, 2006 and has since undertaken several Hydrographic surveys of national importance on the West coast of India.