A few years ago, a large warship was commissioned by the Indian Navy. It seems a little ridiculous to say that since the Navy has been commissioning large warships for some time now. But the news which followed a few weeks later carried much greater implication for planners and armchair analysts like me with nothing better to do than split hairs over the details. So, for the sake of this exercise let’s assume that it was the guided missile destroyer INS Kolkata , the lead ship of its class, which was commissioned in August 2014. It had taken more than 10 years from the laying of the keel in September 2003 to the ship’s own tryst with destiny a full 67 years after the country’s independence. Quite obviously, it would have spent much time on the drawing boards and in the minds of planners and designers from well before 2003. The government however accorded sanction for its manpower after the ship was commissioned in...