India made history Wednesday by commissioning two indigenously developed and manufactured warships - a class-leading stealth frigate and guided missile destroyer - and an attack submarine.
This is the first time Delhi has commissioned three warships - all built entirely in India - at one go and that is a significant statement of intent in itself, including a declaration of military self-sufficiency.
But it has also been seen as a firm reply to Beijing as India and China jostle for strategic influence over the Indian Ocean region, and Pakistan's plan to build - with Chinese help - a 50-ship Navy.
And it is also a critical step forward in Delhi's plans to upgrade its (mostly) Soviet-era weaponry, a mammoth task that saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government spend over $15 billion last year - according to the Defence Ministry - on domestic defence manufacturing.
As part of that overhaul of the military, Mr Modi also has plans to rapidly increase and expand the country's warship and submarine fleets, with the emphasis on the ruling BJP's 'Make in India' push.
According to the government, over 75 per cent of the warships were developed in-house.
"India is now becoming a major maritime power... (and) the commissioning of three frontline naval combatants will strengthen our efforts to become a global leader and augment our quest for self-reliance," he said, as INS Nilgiri, INS Surat, and INS Vaghsheer were inducted into the Indian Navy.
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"We have taken a big step towards getting the Navy ready for this century," Mr Modi thundered.
What This Means For Indian Navy
The simultaneous induction of three attack vessels is a red-letter day for the Navy given the slow pace of manufacture of ships in the country, a point of concern at a time China is expanding rapidly.
To underline that point, in the last decade India has inducted 33 warships.
In that same period, China is believed to have onboarded a staggering 148 warships.
The launch of two warships and a submarine, no matter how potent each is, will not solve India's problems with China and Pakistan in the Indian Ocean Region, but it will, and does, lay down a marker for the rapid construction and commissioning of future attack vessels for the Navy.
And that has been emphasised by the fact the destroyer took just 31 months, or less than three years, to go from launch to commissioning. Previous ships in this class took as long as 50 months.
The additions will enhance its naval forces' capabilities and make them even more effective in safeguarding the country's maritime interests, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi said.
A further 62 warships, and a submarine, are being built, he said.
The Navy's New Assets
The stealth-capable INS Nilgiri is the flagship vessel of a new class of frigates - Project 17A - which will have seven ships and is a major evolution over the Shivalik-class currently in service.
Each ship in this class - designed by the Navy's Warship Design Bureau and incorporating advanced features for enhanced attack and stealth capabilities, reflecting next-generation frigates - will cost an estimated Rs 4,000 crore. These are being built in dockyards in Mumbai and Kolkata.
Captain Nitin Kapoor, the Nilgiri's Commanding Officer, told a digital publication the ship's advanced stealth capacity was the result of a re-designed top deck. Traditional fittings like anchors have been moved to a hidden 'mooring deck', he said, for improved suppression of the radar signature.
Guided missile destroyer INS Surat, meanwhile, is larger than the Nilgiri - at approximately 8,000 tons - and is the last ship of the Visakhapatnam class, which is seen as the Navy's most powerful surface combatant. It features subsystems from Russian and Israeli warships, as also Ukrainian.
But perhaps most striking is the Surat's tag as India's first 'AI-enabled' warship.
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INS Surat will be the last of a class of four warships, each of which costs Rs 8,950 crore.
The Project 15B ships are a serious upgrade over the Kolkata-class destroyers, and the Surat has been hailed as the best of these four. The three others - INS Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, and Imphal - were commissioned in November 2021, December 2022, and December 2023, respectively.
These ships will stock, among other weapons, the surface-to-surface BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and Barak-8 medium-range surface-to-air missiles, as well as an array of mounted guns.
The INS Vagsheer already has a fearsome reputation - as a 'hunter-killer' submarine, thanks to superior stealth features like an advanced acoustic absorption technique and a revolutionary air-independent propulsion system.
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This is the last of six new-generation, diesel-electric submarines in the Scorpene class, which can fire torpedoes and anti-ship missiles, meaning it can target and destroy enemies from the air and sea.
India's newest and deadliest subs can undertake both anti-surface and anti-submarine missions, as well as gather intelligence, lay mines, and take part in area surveillance, officials have said.
Each Scorpene-class sub costs Rs 3,942 crore.
With input from agencies
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