Three frontline combatants — INS Nilgiri, lead ship of the Project 17A stealth frigate class, INS Surat, fourth and final ship of the Project 15B stealth destroyer class, and INS Vaghsheer, sixth and final submarine of the Scorpene-class project — were commissioned in the Indian Navy at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on Wednesday. What are these versatile, indigenous platforms, their features and strengths, and the significance of these additions to the Navy? INS Nilgiri The Nilgiri-class stealth frigate, built under the codename Project 17A, is a follow-on vessel of the Shivalik class or Project 17 frigates that are currently in service. INS Nilgiri is the first of seven frigates in Project 17A being built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Mumbai, and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata. This class of ships has an “integrated construction” philosophy, which involves extensive pre-outfitting at the block stages to reduce overall building periods. The multi-mission frigates are capable of operating in a “blue water” environment — in the deep seas far from the coast — and deal with both conventional and non-conventional threats. With their versatile weapons and capabilities, these ships can play a crucial role in anti-surface, anti-air, and anti-submarine warfare. The ships are fitted with a supersonic surface-to-surface missile system, a Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missiles (MRSAM) system, a 76 millimetre upgraded gun, and a combination of rapid-fire close-in weapon systems. The keel of INS Nilgiri was laid on December 28, 2017, and the ship was launched into water on September 28, 2019. It sailed out for maiden sea trials in August last year, and underwent a comprehensive schedule of trials in harbour and at sea, leading up to its delivery to the Navy on December 20 last year. The other six ships of this class — Himgiri, Taragiri, Udaygiri, Dunagiri, and Vindhyagiri — are at various stages of construction at MDL, Mumbai, and GRSE, Kolkata. INS Surat The fourth and final stealth guided missile destroyer under Project 15B follows INS Visakhapatnam, INS Mormugao, and INS Imphal, which were commissioned over the past three years. INS Surat is the Indian Navy’s first Al (artificial intelligence) enabled warship, which will utilise indigenously developed Al solutions to enhance its operational efficiency manifold. Over the past decade, guided missile destroyers of the Kolkata class built under the project codenamed 15A — INS Kolkata, INS Kochi, and INS Chennai — have been commissioned into the Navy. To build an advanced variant of the Kolkata class, a contract for the construction of four more guided missile destroyers under the project codenamed 15B was signed in January 2011. Designed by the Warship Design Bureau, the Indian Navy’s in-house warship design unit, and built by MDL, the four ships under Project 15B are named after major cities in the four corners of the country. Destroyers are a category of warships that have high speed and manoeuvrability, greater strike capability, and longer endurance, because of which they are a key asset in various types of naval operations, mainly offensive. With their modern sensors and communication facilities, these ships are a key asset in “network-centric” warfare, in which information technology and computer networking tools are used to form networks of various force elements that are in play in conflict scenarios. A guided missile destroyer with a displacement of 7,400 tonnes and overall length of 164 metres, INS Surat is a potent and versatile platform equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors, including surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, and torpedoes. Powered by a Combined Gas and Gas (COGAG) propulsion set comprising four gas turbines, it has achieved speeds in excess of 30 knots (56 km/h) during sea trials. INS Vaghsheer INS Vaghsheer is the sixth and final submarine of the modern stealthy Kalvari class built under Project 75. The design of the Kalvari class of submarines is based on the Scorpene class designed and developed by the French defence major Naval Group (formerly DCNS), and the Spanish state-owned entity Navantia. They have diesel electric transmission systems, and are primarily “attack” or “hunter-killer” submarines — which means they are designed to target and sink adversary naval vessels. According to officials, this is one of the world’s most silent and versatile diesel-electric class of submarines. It is designed to undertake a wide range of missions, including anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, area surveillance, and special operations. The submarines are armed with wire-guided torpedoes, anti-ship missiles, and advanced sonar systems, and feature modular construction that allows for future upgrades such as the integration of Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) technology. The AIP systems, which significantly enhance the submerged endurance of a diesel electric submarine, are expected to be installed on this class of submarines from 2026 onward. The submarines in the current Kalvari class take their names from now-decommissioned classes of submarines named Kalvari — including Kalvari, Khanderi, Karanj — and the Vela class, which included Vela, Vagir, Vagshir. The erstwhile Kalvari and Vela classes were one of the earliest submarines of the Indian Navy after Independence, which belonged to the Soviet-origin Foxtrot class of vessels. Vaghsheer is named after a type of sandfish found in the Indian Ocean. Three vessels together Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who presided over the commissioning ceremony, said that for the first time, a destroyer, a frigate, and a submarine were joining the Indian Navy together. “It is a matter of pride that all the three frontline platforms are made in India,” he said. A Navy veteran said: “If we consider the journeys of these three categories of ships, the time taken from the drawing board design to the commissioning is anywhere between 10 and 15 years. Which means that work on the ships that were commissioned today started that long ago.” The Navy veteran said the addition of these three vessels was “a step towards achieving the force level required for the Navy to be a formidable deterrent against any regional threats, and to bolster India’s strategic maritime influence in the Indian Ocean Region and beyond”. In his speech at the commissioning ceremony, the PM said: “India has emerged as the first responder in the Indian Ocean Region.” The Indian Navy has in recent times saved hundreds of lives and secured national and international cargo worth thousands of crores, increasing global trust in India, the Indian Navy, and the Coast Guard, the Prime Minister said. The PM emphasised the dual importance of commissioning of the three ships from both the military and economic perspective.
