Trident Joins Indian Navy

Col. Alok Mathur, SM (Veteran)

On the auspicious occasion of summer solstice marking the pinnacle of light and life, at midday on 21 June 2026, the longest day of the year, three indigenously built Naval Vessels were commissioned in to roster of Indian Navy giving a boost to its fleet strength.  The new chief of Naval staff Admiral Krishna Swaminathan welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the grand ceremony at Shayma Prashad Mukherjee Port in Kolkata, West Bengal.  Governor R N Ravi, CM West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari were also guest of honour.  FOC – in – Chief, Eastern Naval Command. Vice Admiral Sanjay Bhalla , FOC – in – Chief, Eastern Naval Command and Commodore P R Hari ( Retd) Chairman Garden Reach and Shipbuilders Engineers (GRSE) also witnessed the ceremony. The three new ships commissioned were INS Dunagiri, INS Shanshodhak and INS Agray.  All three ships are marvel of latest technology, fitted with modern maritime avionics and most important is indigenously built with Indian material and by Indian scientist and engineers under Misson Atmanirbhar in Defence production. A new trident has been inducted in Indian Navy.

INS Dunagiri 2.0 is a stealth frigate, the fifth ship of Nilgiri class guided missile platform, under Project 17A built in India by Garden Reach, Ship Builders and Engineers , a public sector defence production company, recently elevated to Nav Ratna status .  The keel of vessel was laid down in 2020 and was completed on 30 March 2026. After extensive trials in high Sea, it was commissioned on 21 June 2026.  It has been allotted pennant no F 36. The weight of the ship is about 7,000 tons, length 150 metres, Beam17.8 metres, Draft 5.22 metres and Depth 10 metres approx. The power Plants are 2x Man Diesel 6000 kW each and 2x General Electric (HAL) LM 2500. The optimum speed is 18 kn but can achieve 28 kn (52 kmph). Cruising range at optimum speed is 5500 nautical miles (10,200 km),

The crew is composed of 226 sailors. INS Dunagiri is equipped with Electronic warfare devices like BEL Ajanta suite comprising of 4 x Kavach launchers and 2x NSTL Mareech torpedo countermeasures system.  The main firepower is 4 x 8 cell Vertical launchers system(VLS) for Anti Air missile Barak 8 and 1x 8 cell VLS for Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles making it a deadly weapon platform. It is also fitted 2x triple tubes with anti-ship torpedoes and anti-submarine RBU 6000 Rockets.  It has a helipad and hanger for two HAL Dhurv / Sea king helicopters.  It is to be highlighted that INS Dunagiri 1.0 was a leander class frigate built in 1977 and was decommissioned in 2010 but the legacy continues.

The War ship has been named on a Himalayan peak and motto is’ for ever Victorios’. The other sister frigates in Nilgiri class frigates serving in Indian Navy are INS Nilgiri, INS Udaygiri, INS Taragiri, INS Himgiri and now INS Dunagiri is launched to protect Indian maritime frontiers. The multi mission stealth frigates were designed by War ship bureau and were approved by Directorate of Naval Design.  The Mazagaon docks, and GRSE were jointly awarded contract to build P 17A frigates. Four were to be built by Mazagaon docks, Goa/ Mumbai and three were to be constructed at GRSE, Kolkata. INS Mahendragiri and Vindyagiri are yet to be commissioned. The present Commanding officer is Commander Divyank Alok, who received and read out the commissioning order from CNS.

Special features – P 17 A warships ( Nilgiri group) are improved version of P 17 group (Shivalik group).  They are geo symmetrically about 5 % larger than Shivalik class frigates. And almost 80% indigenous. Each frigate has been built from almost 4000 tons of steel provided by Steel authority of India from Bokaro/ Rourkela steel plants. The other important feature is very low radar signatures and significant degree of stealth .it has been achieved by composite materials, radar observant paints and low observable radar transparent technology. The unique rounded shape mooring decks, flush weapon mounts and retractable antennas.  also assists in near zero radar cross section.

Another important feature is application of venturi and fluid injection system; the propulsion system and power generation infra-red signatures are supressed considerably. Acoustic silence is maintained by specially designed propellers. P 17 A vessels like Dunagiri have been constructed with Integrated Modular Technology – a manufacturing process where various parts are preassembled in modules and finally integrated in different location. MDL has contracted Fincanteri SPA for providing expertise in modular construction methodology.  All P 17A Warships are named on historical mountain ranges of India and old decommissioned ships. The new generation of Frigates will join  carrier battle groups of Vikrant and Virat and later INS Vishal, the new aircraft carrier under construction.

INS Shanshodhak was the second ship commissioned on same day. 21 June is also a World Hydrography Day. It is the fourth hydrographic survey ship, which will be used for coastal and deep-water hydrographic survey. INS Shanshodhak is equipped with highly advanced hydrographic survey equipment which will collect sensitive oceanographic and geophysical data for defence and civil applications. The other hydrographic ships of the project already deployed in service are INS Ikshak, INS Sandhyak and INS Nirdeshak. The contract for four survey vessels (large) was signed on 30 Oct 2018. INS Sandhyak was commissioned on 3 Feb 2024. INS Nirdeshak joined Indian Navy on 18 Dec 2024 and third survey ship large INS Ikshak was commissioned on 06 Nov 2025.

Special features – INS Sanshodhak is built by GRSE, Kolkata. It has the displacement of about 3500 tons and overall length of 110 metres. The keel was laid in June 2022 and launched in 2023. It had undergone comprehensive harbour and high sea trials. The hydrographic vessel is equipped with state of art hydrographic data acquisition and processing system. Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs), DGPS long range deep positioning system, Digital side scan sonar. It is powered by GE diesel engines and achieve speed of 18 knots.  The indigenous content is about 89%.  It is also fitted with CRN 91 naval gun for protection against drones and Aerial / Sea threat. It has a helipad and can accommodate one helicopter (Dhurv/ Sea King). It has crew of 231 sailors and commanded by Captain (IN) Kuldip Singh with pennant number J 24. A pride of Indian naval fleet.

INS Agray was the third blade of the Trident commissioned on 21 June along with Dunagiri and shansodhak. The identification code is P 36. INS Agray is the fifth ship of Arnala class. Its combat role is Anti- submarine Warfare shallow water craft (ASW-SWC). It is also built by GRSE, Kolkata.  The keel was laid on 31 Dec 2022 and launched in 2024. It was acquired for trials in March 2026 and finally commissioned on 21 June 2026. The displacement weight is 900 tons. The length is 78 metres, beam 10.5 metres, Draft 3 metres. It is based on water jet propulsion system. The speed is 25 Knots   and cruising range is 3300 km. The crew is composed of 7 officers and 50 sailors. It is called submarine killer.

It is equipped with ASW combat suite developed by DRDO. Abhay hull mounted sonar, low frequency variable depth sonar for deep detection of submarines. It is also provided with automatic power management system and battle damage control system. The weapon platforms are 1x Naval surface 30mm gun, 2x OFT 12.7 mm M2 stabilised gun.  The main weapons against submarines are 1x RBU rocket launcher, 2x triple tube advance light weight torpedo launchers ALWT and Mine laying rails for launching Anti- submarine mines. It is like a shark looking for prey. INS Akshay, INS Ajay and INS Amini are other submarine sharks in service with for Anti-submarine warfare. INS Agray is now operational and commanded by Commander Sumit Malhotra.

PM address during commissioning ceremony of Trident war ships was very motivating and informative. He congratulated Indian Navy, Scientists, Engineers and workers of Garden reach ship builders and Engineers ltd, DRDO, BEL and all MSMEs who have contributed for producing these wonderful weapon platforms under Misson Atma Bharat. He highlighted that India was known as largest Arms exporter of the world till few years ago.  He informed that India’s defence production was Rs 40,000 crores in 2014 and now enhanced to 1,80,000 crores. We are almost self-reliant in Weapons production for Armed forces.

We are now exporting Arms to 80 countries of the globe. In 2014, the defence exports were worth Rs 700 crores which has now reached the level of Rs 40,000 crores after adoption of Atma Nirbhar mission..  PM announced that the journey of Self reliance started from INS Vikrant, the indigenous aircraft carrier and now in full swing. The deployment of third Indian SSBN’ Aridhaman’  has demonstrated that India has completed its triad successfully. Indian Navy acquired 40 Indigenously built War ships in last 10 years and 45 new naval platforms are under construction. PM Modi congratulated Indian Navy and all agencies linked to project and stressed that a nation’s economic and strategic influence n is directly linked to its maritime prowess and said that it is beginning of a new long journey.