Warships of the Indian Navy

India’s newest warships are no longer bought from abroad, they’re built at home. This article covers the Indian Navy‘s main warship classes: destroyers, frigates, and corvettes.

Three Classes, One Fleet

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DESTROYERS

Kolkata-Class, the Fleet’s Guardians

Largest destroyers in service, defending the carrier battle group

FRIGATES

Shivalik and Nilgiri-Class

The multi-role backbone, balancing stealth, speed and firepower

CORVETTES

Kamorta-Class, Coastal Hunters

Smaller, agile ships built for littoral anti-submarine warfare

INDIGENOUS BUILD

Made at Home Now

All three classes are now built domestically, not imported

The long arc: Destroyer, frigate, and corvette are sorted by size and role, not just hull shape, and each class does a job the other two cannot cover as well.

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📑 Contents

1Must Know
2Good to Know
3Test Yourself
4Great to Know
5Current Affairs
6Previous Year Questions

✊ Must Know

Three Warship Classes, Sorted by Size and Role

Structure The Indian Navy’s surface fleet has three main categories: destroyers, frigates, and corvettes. They are sorted by size and role.
Destroyers Destroyers handle blue-water area defence and protect the carrier battle group. The Kolkata-class are the largest destroyers currently in Indian Navy service.

Frigates, Corvettes, and Indigenous Build

Frigates Frigates form the multi-role backbone of the fleet, balancing stealth, speed, and firepower. The Shivalik-class and newer Nilgiri-class are current examples.
Corvettes Corvettes operate in shallow coastal waters, hunting submarines and defending offshore assets. The Kamorta-class is India’s first indigenously built stealth anti-submarine corvette.
Build All three classes above are now built in India, chiefly at Mazagon Dock Limited and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers.

💡 Good to Know

Firsts of Each Class

Kolkata The Kolkata-class ships were the first Indian Navy destroyers equipped with vertical-launch missile systems. They remain among the fleet’s largest surface combatants.
Shivalik The Shivalik-class was the first Indian-designed warship built with low-observability (stealth) features, improving on the earlier Russian-built Talwar-class frigates.
Kamorta The Kamorta-class corvettes were the first anti-submarine warfare stealth corvettes ever built in India.

The Fleet Expansion Target

2035 Target India aims to field a fleet of 175 to 200 warships by 2035. This adds next-generation destroyers, frigates, corvettes, and mine countermeasure vessels.

Test Yourself

🌟 Great to Know

Why the Classification Matters

Role Sorting ships by displacement and role, not just hull shape, matters operationally. A destroyer’s job (area defence) and a corvette’s job (coastal anti-submarine work) cannot substitute for each other.
Firsts Each class was a “first” of its kind: first vertical-launch destroyer, first stealth frigate, first stealth corvette. This pattern shows steady, deliberate capability-building, not one single leap forward.

A Wider Shift to Indigenous Shipbuilding

Scope Building all three classes domestically now shows something wider than one flagship project. India’s shift to indigenous shipbuilding runs across the entire surface fleet, not just the aircraft carrier covered elsewhere.
Planning A fleet expansion target as specific as 175-200 ships by 2035 reflects planned, incremental capability growth, not a reaction to any single immediate threat.

📰 Current Affairs

Samudra Pradakshina: All-Women Tri-Service Circumnavigation, July 2026

22 Jul 2026 Defence Minister Rajnath Singh flagged in “Samudra Pradakshina,” the first-ever Tri-service all-women circumnavigation sailing expedition. Nine women officers from the Army, Navy, and Air Force completed the voyage. (Source: PIB)
Vessel The crew sailed aboard IASV Triveni, a 50-foot, indigenously built Indian Army Sailing Vessel. The voyage covered nearly 25,500 nautical miles over 314 days, across four oceans. (Source: PIB)
Criteria The expedition, flagged off on 11 September 2025 from Mumbai, met every internationally recognised circumnavigation criterion — crossing all meridians of longitude, crossing the Equator twice, and crossing the International Date Line. The crew also rounded the Three Great Capes: Cape Leeuwin, Cape Horn, and the Cape of Good Hope. (Source: PIB)
Cape Horners Passing through the Drake Passage and rounding Cape Horn earned the crew membership in the “Cape Horners” fraternity, reserved for sailors who complete one of the world’s most demanding maritime passages. Rajnath Singh called the expedition a symbol of India’s Nari Shakti and Tri-Service jointness, and IASV Triveni a testament to India’s indigenous shipbuilding capability. (Source: PIB)

INS Malvan and Operation Southern Readiness, July 2026

22 Jul 2026 The Navy commissioned INS Malvan, the second Mahe-class Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft. Built at Cochin Shipyard, it carries over 80% indigenous content. (Source: PIB)
20-23 Jul 2026 The Navy hosted Operation Southern Readiness 26-2 at Southern Naval Command, Kochi — the first time India has held this exercise. This four-day multinational training engagement ran with the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a 40-plus-nation maritime partnership, drawing 254 participants from 26 countries. (Source: PIB)
Training Training covered maritime law, counter-narcotics, force protection, and hands-on drills aboard an Indian naval ship. The Indian Navy led it through Combined Task Force 154 (CTF 154), CMF’s dedicated training unit, commanded by Commodore Milind M Mokashi. Day one included a UNODC session on Red Sea and Western Indian Ocean maritime-security threats, plus simulator drills in navigation and firefighting. (Source: PIB)

Three Newest Indigenous Warship Classes: Nilgiri, Sandhayak, Arnala

13 Jul 2026 PIB published a backgrounder on India’s three newest indigenous warship classes: Nilgiri, Sandhayak, and Arnala. Together, they guard a coastline of 11,098 km. Their Exclusive Economic Zone spans nearly 2.4 million sq km, carrying about 90% of India’s trade by volume. (Source: PIB)
Nilgiri The Nilgiri class, built under Project 17A, will field 7 stealth frigates in total. They are Nilgiri, Himgiri, Taragiri, Udaygiri, Dunagiri, Mahendragiri, and the under-construction Vindhyagiri. (Source: PIB)
Sandhayak The Sandhayak class now stands complete at 4 survey vessels: Sandhayak, Nirdeshak, Ikshak, and Sanshodhak. Each is about 110 metres long, displacing 3,400 tonnes, with a range of 6,500 nautical miles and a crew of about 178. India’s hydrographers surveyed 89,000 sq km and produced 96 nautical charts between 2019 and 2024. INS Sanshodhak was commissioned on 21 June 2026, World Hydrography Day. (Source: PIB)
Arnala The Arnala class is an 8-ship anti-submarine class: Arnala, Androth, Anjadip, Amini, Abhay, Agray, Akshay, and Ajay. Each is about 77.6 metres long, using waterjet propulsion for a top speed of 25 knots. A parallel Mahe-class, under construction at Cochin Shipyard, will raise the total to 16 shallow-water anti-submarine craft. (Source: PIB)
Scale Across the Navy, 64 of 66 ships and submarines currently on order are being built in India. The Project 17A frigate line alone engaged over 200 MSMEs, creating about 4,000 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs. India’s defence exports hit a record ₹23,622 crore in 2024-25, up about 12% from ₹21,083 crore the previous year. These indigenous classes also advance India’s SAGAR (2015) and MAHASAGAR (2025) maritime doctrines, and support the Blue Economy, which contributes about 4% of India’s GDP. (Source: PIB)

INS Mahendragiri Commissioned, July 2026

11 Jul 2026 Defence Minister Rajnath Singh commissioned INS Mahendragiri, the Navy’s sixth Project 17A stealth frigate, at Visakhapatnam. Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Krishna Swaminathan also attended. The ship is named after the Mahendragiri mountain range in the Eastern Ghats — the first Indian Naval warship to carry that name. (Source: PIB)
Specs It was designed in-house by the Navy’s Warship Design Bureau and built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Mumbai. The frigate carries over 75% indigenous content, displaces about 6,670 tonnes, and has a top speed of 28 knots. It carries supersonic surface-to-surface missiles, medium-range surface-to-air missiles, anti-submarine warfare systems, and embarks a multi-role helicopter. (Source: PIB)
Role INS Mahendragiri joined the Navy’s Eastern Fleet. It is tasked with maritime security, search and rescue, and humanitarian relief missions across the Indian Ocean Region and beyond. The seventh and final Project 17A frigate, INS Vindhyagiri, built by GRSE Kolkata, is expected before the end of 2026. (Source: PIB)

Three Warships Commissioned in Kolkata, June 2026

21 Jun 2026 PM Modi commissioned three indigenous warships in Kolkata: INS Dunagiri, INS Sanshodhak, and INS Agray. All three were designed by the Navy’s Warship Design Bureau. They were built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata. Indigenous content exceeded 75%, with over 200 MSMEs involved in the build.
Dunagiri INS Dunagiri is the fifth Nilgiri-class stealth frigate, carrying BrahMos missiles and Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missiles.
Sanshodhak INS Sanshodhak is the fourth Survey Vessel (Large), fitted with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles for hydrographic surveys.
Agray INS Agray is the fourth Arnala-class Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft, carrying lightweight torpedoes and indigenous rocket launchers.

📝 Previous Year Questions

UPSC CSP 2016 — What INS Astradharini Is

UPSC 2016 The correct answer is Torpedo launch and recovery vessel. INS Astradharini is India’s first indigenously designed torpedo launch and recovery vessel. It was commissioned in October 2015 at Visakhapatnam, replacing the earlier INS Astravahini. See UPSC CSP 2016 GS Paper I, Q46.

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