Some 1,500 Mauritians seized the opportunity to visit “one of the world’s most powerful warships” last Friday,. The Indian destroyer ship INS Tabar, just out of the Saint Petersburg Baltic Shipyard and on its way to India, had chosen Port-Louis as its eleventh and last port of call before Mumbai.

This 125-meter frigate is an impressive mobile fortress from the outside and the most interesting part of it is the operations room, which is both the heart and the brain of the ship.

It is there that all the strategies are devised, where all the decisions are taken. Entering this small room without windows, where the only lights are those of the computers, you feel disconnected from the rest of the world. In fact, from this place, they can control every single angle of the ship and activate any of its powerful weapons.

A multitude of high-tech sensors protect all three dimensions of the ship. The information generated by these sensors is analysed and disseminated into the room’s computers thanks to a software intensive Computer Aided Action Information System.

The room is divided into four different sections. Two of them are dedicated to defence: the anti-submarine and anti-nuclear sections. Data generated by a sonar system is sent to the first one, from where an anti-submarine rocket launcher and torpedoes can be activated. The nuclear biological defence and damage control infrastructure is controlled from the anti-nuclear section. In case of a nuclear attack, filters are used to protect the crew from outside irradiation.

Then, there is the navigation section. The last part is the gunnery, where all the offensive strategies are discussed and where the weapons, such as surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, or the 100-mm gun mount can be activated, just by pressing a button. It is hard to imagine so much power concentrated in such a small space.

Capitain AG Thapliyal, the commandant of INS Tabar, highlighted how important it is to India to have a state-of-the-art maritime defense: “I hope we will never have to press on any of those red buttons.”