Nine Indian-Built Ships Entered Navy Service Between 27 February and 12 October 2026, From the Stealth Frigate Dunagiri to the Submarine Hunter Mangrol

Between 27 February and 12 October 2026 the Indian Navy commissioned nine ships built in Indian shipyards: three stealth frigates, four anti-submarine craft for coastal waters, a survey ship and a diving support vessel. Press Information Bureau (PIB) releases cover eight of them, and All India Radio, the public broadcaster, reported the ninth, INS Mangrol, on 12 October. Every release that gives a figure puts indigenous content above 75 percent.

The Navy’s own tally is one higher. At the Mangrol ceremony the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Naval Command, a Vice Admiral, said ten ships had been commissioned in 2026, with another eight expected soon. All figures below are as of 14 October 2026.

The nine commissionings, in order

• 27 February, Chennai Port: INS Anjadip, an anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft, built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) of Kolkata, with over 80 percent indigenous content.
• 3 April, Visakhapatnam: INS Taragiri, the fourth Project 17A stealth frigate, built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDL) of Mumbai, displacing about 6,670 tonnes, with over 75 percent indigenous content.
• 21 June, Kolkata: the frigate INS Dunagiri, the survey vessel INS Sanshodhak and the anti-submarine craft INS Agray, all built by GRSE, commissioned together by the Prime Minister.
• 11 July, Visakhapatnam: INS Mahendragiri, the sixth Project 17A frigate, built by MDL.
• 22 July, Karwar: INS Malvan, the second Mahe-class craft from Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), with over 80 percent indigenous content.
• 31 August, Naval Dockyard Mumbai: INS Nipun, a diving support vessel, built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) of Visakhapatnam.
• 12 October, Naval Dockyard Mumbai: INS Mangrol, the third Mahe-class craft from CSL, with over 80 percent indigenous content.

The three Kolkata ships were designed by the Navy’s Warship Design Bureau, and the PIB release says more than 200 small and medium firms (MSMEs) took part in building them. That ceremony came 17 months after what the Chief of the Naval Staff called independent India’s first tri-commissioning, in Mumbai in January 2025.

Why the Navy says ten and the releases say nine

The Vice Admiral’s remarks, as All India Radio reported them, did not list the ships. Counting the three Kolkata vessels separately gives eight by 31 August and nine with Mangrol.

The one other commissioning reported for the year is INS Aridhaman, India’s third nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. ThePrint reported on 3 April that it had entered service at Visakhapatnam that day, that the event stayed out of public view, and that defence sources confirmed it. tuput found no PIB release or Navy statement for Aridhaman, so it cannot say whether that is the tenth ship the Vice Admiral counted. The headline uses nine because nine is the number an official release backs.

The forward figure is easier to follow. The Defence Minister told the Navy’s Commanders’ Conference on 29 September that the Navy would induct or commission 18 warships in 2026, and All India Radio’s headline called it the largest single-year force expansion in the Navy’s history. Ten done plus eight to come is 18. Marine Insight reported on 4 June that the Vice Chief of the Naval Staff had put the plan at 19 the previous October, so the planned total has been reported as both 19 and 18.

The plan has also slipped within the year. Marine Insight listed five platforms for induction in June, including Mahendragiri and Malvan. They were commissioned on 11 and 22 July.

Three frigates, four coastal hunters, two specialists

The frigates are Nilgiri-class ships from Project 17A. The Mahendragiri release describes about 6,670 tonnes, speeds up to 28 knots, supersonic surface-to-surface missiles, medium-range air-defence missiles, anti-submarine weapons and a multi-role helicopter. It also says Mahendragiri was the sixth of the class in 1.5 years: Nilgiri in January 2025, Udaygiri and Himgiri in August 2025, Taragiri in April 2026 and Dunagiri in June. At the Taragiri ceremony the Chief of the Naval Staff recalled the Leander-class frigate of the same name, commissioned in 1980.

The four coastal craft belong to one programme of 16 anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft, which The Tribune reports is worth nearly ₹13,000 crore, with GRSE and CSL each building eight. They carry sonar, torpedoes and anti-submarine rockets, and they run on waterjets, and the Anjadip release gives the length as 77 metres. The Agray release says the design is meant for agility in littoral (near-shore) waters. PIB called Malvan the sixth of the 16 to be commissioned. Mangrol is the seventh by simple count, after Arnala (June 2025), Androth (October 2025), Mahe (24 November 2025), Anjadip, Agray and Malvan.

Sanshodhak finished a four-ship survey programme whose contract was signed on 30 October 2018. PIB’s delivery release says its three predecessors were commissioned on 3 February 2024, 18 December 2024 and 6 November 2025. The ship was delivered on 30 March 2026 and commissioned 83 days later. The commissioning release says it carries four survey motor boats, can operate helicopters and can be configured as a hospital ship.

Nipun is the second Nistar-class diving vessel. PIB says it supports saturation, air and heliox diving, carries remotely operated underwater systems and can support submarine rescue. The Chief of the Naval Staff said that capability is available with only a handful of navies.

Four yards, and build times that fell

Four yards built the nine: MDL in Mumbai, GRSE in Kolkata, CSL in Kochi and HSL in Visakhapatnam. India’s shipwrights were building warships for the Royal Navy at Bombay two centuries ago, and PIB’s December 2025 backgrounder describes the Navy as having moved from a “Buyer’s Navy” to a “Builder’s Navy”.

The most specific evidence comes from the Mahendragiri ceremony. The Chief of the Naval Staff said MDL and the Navy had cut the time from launch to delivery on the Project 17A frigates from 63 months to 31, and total construction time from 95 months to 75, about 20 percent. He added that the technical analyses were completed in a single sea trial instead of the usual five to seven. Those are the Navy’s figures, stated at the ceremony, and the release does not give the ship-by-ship data behind them.

Delivery does not mean service. Taragiri was handed over on 28 November 2025, according to the PIB backgrounder, and commissioned on 3 April 2026. Mangrol was delivered on 22 August 2026, Marine Insight reports, and commissioned 51 days later.

What the indigenous content figure covers

The releases give the figure as a share of the ship, above 75 percent for the frigates and the Kolkata trio and above 80 percent for the coastal craft. They do not say how the share is measured. All India Radio’s Malvan report lists a German-Indian sonar suite among its equipment, so some systems come from joint ventures. The Defence Minister said on 29 September that recently commissioned warships have more than 75 percent indigenous content, the same threshold the releases use. The wider shift from importer to maker in Indian defence is covered separately.

What is due next

On 21 June the Prime Minister said 45 major naval platforms were under construction. PIB’s December 2025 backgrounder had put it at 51 large ships worth about ₹90,000 crore. The two documents count different things on different dates, and neither release reconciles them. The same backgrounder said a new vessel had joined the Navy every 40 days on average over the previous year, and listed Vindhyagiri among the Project 17A frigates still under construction.

The next scheduled commissioning is INS Samarthak, the first of four multi-purpose vessels from Larsen & Toubro, at Karwar on 16 October. The Vice Admiral said that by 2034 around 60 percent of the Navy’s platforms are expected to be less than ten years old on average.