Three indigenously built frontline warships — INS Dunagiri, INS Sanshodhak and INS Agray — will be jointly commissioned into the Indian Navy at Kolkata on Saturday, 21 June 2026, in a landmark ceremony presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The triple commissioning, taking place at one venue on a single day, will mark one of the most consequential operational additions to the Indian Navy's order of battle in recent years and stands as a milestone achievement for India's indigenous defence shipbuilding ecosystem.

All three ships have been designed by the Indian Navy's Warship Design Bureau and constructed by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata — the public-sector shipbuilder that has, with this delivery, reached the milestone of 118 warships built in total, including 80 delivered to the Indian Navy. The three platforms were formally delivered together to the Navy on 30 March 2026, in what GRSE has called the historic delivery of "triplets" — the first time in the yard's six-decade history that three frontline naval platforms have been handed over to the Navy on a single day.

What is being commissioned tomorrow

The three vessels represent three distinct categories of naval capability, covering different mission profiles essential to a balanced fleet.

**INS Dunagiri** is the fifth ship of the Project 17A Nilgiri-class stealth frigate programme — among the most consequential platforms in the Indian Navy's surface-combatant fleet. The frigate, with a displacement of approximately 6,670 tonnes and a length of 149 metres, is equipped with advanced weapons and sensor systems including BrahMos surface-to-surface missiles and Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) systems. Its sensor suite includes the BEL HUMSA-NG bow sonar and the IAI EL/M-2248 MF-STAR S-band Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. The Combined Diesel and Gas (CODAG) propulsion system, with two MAN Diesel engines and two General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, delivers a top speed of 28 knots and a range of approximately 5,500 nautical miles. With a crew complement of 226, Dunagiri (named after the Uttarakhand Himalayan peak) is designed for multi-role operations including surface warfare, air defence, anti-submarine warfare and maritime dominance in blue-water conditions. The ship carries pennant number F36. It was laid down on 24 January 2020 and launched on 15 July 2022.

**INS Sanshodhak** is the fourth and final ship of the Sandhayak-class Survey Vessel (Large) programme — designed specifically for advanced hydrographic and oceanographic missions. With a displacement of approximately 3,300 tonnes, a length of 110 metres and a top speed of 18 knots, the vessel is equipped with sophisticated survey equipment including Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), and Multi-Beam Echo Sounders. The vessel carries a crew complement of 231 and is equipped to operate a HAL Dhruv helicopter from its helideck. Armed with a CRN-91 naval gun for self-defence, Sanshodhak is built for both coastal and deep-water hydrographic surveys — collecting essential oceanographic and geophysical data for defence and civilian purposes alike. With pennant number J24, the ship was laid down on 17 June 2022 and launched on 13 June 2023.

**INS Agray** is the fourth vessel of the Arnala-class Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASW-SWC) programme — designed to detect and neutralise underwater threats in shallow and coastal waters. The Arnala-class itself represents one of the most consequential naval procurement programmes of recent years. The class is to comprise 16 vessels under the original order, approved by the Defence Acquisition Council on 23 December 2013 at a cost of approximately Rs 13,440 crore (approximately Rs 23,000 crore in 2023 terms), to replace the ageing Abhay-class corvettes commissioned between 1989 and 1991. Agray is equipped with lightweight torpedoes, indigenous rocket launchers, and shallow-water sonar systems, giving it strong capability to engage submarine threats in littoral and near-shore environments. The class is being built under a public-private partnership with Larsen & Toubro at its Kattupalli Shipyard. INS Agray was launched on 13 March 2024 alongside her sister ship INS Akshay; the keel for both ships was laid on 31 December 2022 at the GRSE Main Works in Kolkata.

The 24-month expansion phase

The triple commissioning sits within a broader expansion phase that, on the Indian Navy's planning calendar, will see 33 warships enter service between January 2025 and December 2026 — a production tempo that Navy sources have characterised as unprecedented in the institution's history. The 33-ship figure includes frigates, destroyers, corvettes, submarines, survey vessels, anti-submarine warfare platforms, fast attack craft, and a range of other categories — the full spectrum of capability that a modern blue-water navy requires.

The production tempo demonstrates, more than any single statistic, the maturity of India's indigenous defence shipbuilding ecosystem. The capacity to design, build, test, deliver and commission warships at this rate — across multiple shipyards, with substantial indigenous content, and meeting the operational specifications of the world's fifth-largest navy — is a capability that few other countries currently possess at comparable scale.

The earlier ships of the same classes have already entered service. INS Arnala, the first ship of the ASW-SWC class to which Agray belongs, was commissioned at Visakhapatnam in June 2025, attended by Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan. Earlier Nilgiri-class frigates ahead of Dunagiri in the Project 17A sequence have entered service in recent years. Earlier ships of the Sandhayak-class survey vessel programme have also been operational, with Sanshodhak as the fourth and final ship completing the class.

What each capability adds

The combination of the three categories being commissioned tomorrow — stealth frigate, hydrographic survey vessel, and anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft — reflects the Indian Navy's balanced approach to fleet structure. The Navy's operational architecture requires capability across multiple mission profiles: surface combat at sea-control range, anti-air warfare in the layered fleet defence, anti-submarine warfare across deep-water and shallow-water environments, maritime domain awareness (which depends substantially on hydrographic and oceanographic data), and various mission-specific roles.

**Dunagiri**, the Project 17A stealth frigate, addresses the surface-combat layer. The Project 17A class — a follow-on to the Shivalik-class (Project 17) frigates that entered service from 2010 — incorporates substantial stealth design features to reduce radar cross-section and acoustic signature, alongside the upgraded combat suite with BrahMos and MRSAM. The class is among the most capable frigate designs operating in the Indo-Pacific.

**Sanshodhak**, the Sandhayak-class survey vessel, addresses the hydrographic capability. The importance of hydrographic surveying to naval operations is not always visible from the surface — but every modern naval engagement depends on detailed knowledge of seabed topography, water column properties, currents, and oceanographic features. Sanshodhak's AUV and ROV-equipped survey capability extends India's maritime domain awareness across both coastal and deep-water environments. The vessel's data will also be available for civilian applications including hydrographic charts, navigational safety, and offshore resource exploration.

**Agray**, the Arnala-class ASW Shallow Water Craft, addresses one of the most operationally consequential gaps in India's naval architecture — the ability to conduct anti-submarine warfare in the shallow and littoral waters around India's coast. Deep-water ASW is conducted by frigates and destroyers; shallow-water ASW requires a different platform class optimised for the acoustic and operational conditions of coastal waters. The Arnala-class, with 16 vessels under order, will substantially upgrade the Navy's ability to counter submarine threats in coastal and exclusive economic zone waters.

The indigenous content story

A consistent feature of all three platforms is the substantial indigenous content — exceeding 75 per cent across all three ships. The Indian Navy's Warship Design Bureau, established several decades ago and progressively expanded in capability, is now among the world's most capable warship design organisations — having delivered designs for frigates, destroyers, submarines (Arihant-class strategic, Kalvari-class conventional), corvettes, survey vessels, and various smaller categories.

The construction yards include GRSE Kolkata, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (Mumbai), Cochin Shipyard, Hindustan Shipyard (Visakhapatnam), and increasingly the private-sector Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Naval shipyards. The combination of Navy-led design and multi-yard construction — both public and private — creates a distributed and resilient shipbuilding ecosystem that can sustain the production tempo currently being demonstrated.

The supplier base is equally important. Combat systems are increasingly indigenous: BrahMos missiles (DRDO-NPO Mashinostroyenia joint venture), BEL radars and sonars, advanced electronics from various Indian firms, propulsion systems from public and private sector suppliers, and steel from the Indian steel industry's specialised naval-grade product lines.

GRSE: from Calcutta dockyard to global shipbuilder

Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, the yard responsible for tomorrow's triple commissioning, has a particular history worth noting. Established in 1884 on the banks of the Hooghly in Kolkata, GRSE was nationalised in 1960 and became a public-sector defence undertaking. The yard has progressively expanded its capability over the past six decades, building a wide range of platforms — from coastal patrol vessels to advanced stealth frigates and submarine rescue vessels.

The current milestone of 118 warships built (80 delivered to the Indian Navy) places GRSE among the most prolific naval shipbuilders globally. The yard now exports vessels to multiple international customers — including Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh — and has emerged as one of the credible global suppliers of small and medium-sized warships in the international market.

The triple commissioning of Dunagiri, Sanshodhak and Agray represents, in a single ceremony, the operational maturation of GRSE's full capability range — from advanced surface combatants (Dunagiri) to specialised survey vessels (Sanshodhak) to compact ASW platforms (Agray). Few shipyards globally would be in a position to deliver three distinct platform types of this kind on a single day.

The Aatmanirbhar Bharat dimension

The commissioning ceremony is being framed by the Government as a substantial demonstration of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) defence policy in the maritime domain. Indian-designed warships, built in Indian yards, with over 75 per cent indigenous content, are being commissioned at a production tempo that surpasses many global naval shipbuilding programmes. The defence-export trajectory mentioned in the wider sectoral context — India's defence exports rising to a record Rs 38,424 crore in FY 2025-26 — is directly enabled by exactly this kind of demonstrated domestic capability.

The Indian Navy itself, with a sustained fleet expansion programme and a defence budget that has nearly tripled over the past eleven years, is one of the principal customers driving the indigenous shipbuilding ecosystem. Each new platform delivered enhances not just the Navy's operational strength but also the credibility of Indian shipbuilders in international markets.

Strategic context: the Indian Ocean Region

The expansion of the Indian Navy's frontline fleet is taking place against the backdrop of a substantially evolved strategic environment in the Indian Ocean Region. Maritime security questions across the region have grown in complexity and consequence. The Indian Navy's expanded presence — supported by the larger fleet, expanded basing arrangements, enhanced surveillance capability through platforms including the new survey vessels, and improved ASW capability through the Arnala-class — directly supports India's role as the principal security provider of the Indian Ocean Region.

The Mission-Based Deployments doctrine the Indian Navy adopted in 2017 — which keeps Indian warships continuously deployed across designated areas of the Indian Ocean — has been progressively strengthened by exactly the kind of fleet additions that tomorrow's commissioning represents. Each new platform extends the Navy's sustained operational presence and capability.

The road ahead

The commissioning of Dunagiri, Sanshodhak and Agray on 21 June 2026 will be followed, over the remaining months of 2026, by further commissionings of warships already delivered or nearing delivery from various Indian yards. The 24-month expansion phase from January 2025 will conclude in December 2026 with the full complement of 33 ships in service — a fleet expansion that, by any global comparison, places the Indian Navy on a substantially expanded operational footing.

Beyond December 2026, the next phase of fleet expansion will continue, with additional Project 17A frigates, additional submarines (both conventional Kalvari-class and the upcoming Project 75I programme), Project 18 destroyers, the indigenous aircraft carrier programme, and the substantial volume of smaller platforms — patrol vessels, fast attack craft, mine countermeasures vessels — all in various stages of design, construction or planning.

For now, on the eve of 21 June 2026, what stands on the Indian Navy's roster is three new frontline platforms ready to enter service, an unprecedented production tempo demonstrably achieved, and a shipbuilding ecosystem operating at scale and standards that few comparable programmes globally can match. PM Modi's presence at the commissioning underscores the strategic importance the Government attaches to the indigenous defence shipbuilding trajectory — and the substantive achievements it has delivered.