Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched Surya, the first of five Fleet Support Ships (FSS) for the Indian Navy, at Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) in Visakhapatnam on October 6. At the same ceremony, he laid the keel of the fifth ship and inaugurated an upgraded slipway that will allow HSL to build and launch ships of up to 45,000 deadweight tonnes.
A launch is not an induction. Surya has not yet entered operational service; it will now be fitted out and put through trials. The ship is expected to be inducted in mid-2027.
Timeline
2015: HSL begins talks with South Korea's Hyundai on building five fleet support ships.
2018: The Hyundai deal collapses.
May 2019: Turkey's Anadolu Shipyard is selected as a partner; the first ship is due in 2024.
2020–23: The project stalls over Turkey's position on Kashmir and its ties with Pakistan.
August 2023: A contract worth Rs 19,000 crore is signed with HSL for an indigenous design.
October 6, 2026: Surya is launched.
Mid-2027: Surya's induction is expected.
What is a fleet support ship?
Think of it as a fuel station and a warehouse that sail with the fleet. An FSS replenishes ships at sea with fuel, water, ammunition and other stores, allowing the fleet to operate for long periods without returning to harbour. These ships can also support evacuations and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.
Surya is a large ship. At 44,000 tonnes, the class is the first of its kind to be built in India by an Indian shipyard. Once commissioned, these ships will constitute the Navy's largest class of vessels by displacement, surpassing even its aircraft carriers.
The ship is about 223 metres long, with a beam of 31.5 metres, a crew of 214 and a range of 12,000 nautical miles at 16 knots. The ships are designed for 60-day missions and operations outside India's immediate area of interest. They will have first-line maintenance workshops, a deck for multi-role helicopters and self-defence systems. State-run Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) will supply their combat management, communications and electronic warfare systems.
Why does fleet sustenance matter?
A navy's reach ends where its fuel runs out. When INS Deepak was commissioned in 2011, reports said that a destroyer-class warship could sail for about two weeks after refuelling at sea, and that Deepak could refuel 10–12 such ships, including four simultaneously.
Without tankers, warships operating far from home must either turn back or depend on foreign ports for fuel and supplies. That reduces their time on station and makes operations dependent on the goodwill of other countries. For an aircraft carrier battle group or a task force operating hundreds of miles from the coast, a replenishment ship is what turns a sortie into a sustained presence.
What does the Navy rely on today?
The Navy currently operates four fleet tankers. INS Shakti and INS Jyoti serve with the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, while INS Deepak and INS Aditya operate off the western coast.
None is new, and most were built abroad. Jyoti was acquired from Russia and commissioned in 1996, while Aditya was built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) in Kolkata. Deepak and Shakti were built by Italy's Fincantieri under a 2008 contract, and each displaces 27,500 tonnes.
Four tankers must serve two fleets, two aircraft carriers and a growing number of warships on long deployments. The strain is evident. In August, the Western Naval Command shared photographs of INS Aditya and INS Trishul escorting crude oil tankers through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Why has it taken so long?
The requirement for five fleet support ships took shape in the middle of the last decade. The Defence Ministry initially intended to procure them under the 'Buy Global' category. The project was later handed to HSL, but the procurement process encountered repeated delays.
In 2015, HSL explored building the ships in partnership with South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). The partnership was abandoned by October 2018 after disagreements over quality assurance requirements. HHI had also insisted that the first ship be built in South Korea and that major components be sourced from there.
In May 2019, a consortium of Turkish shipyards led by Anadolu Shipyard was selected to partner HSL. The plan was to begin construction by the end of 2020 and deliver the first ship in 2024, with the remaining ships following at 10-month intervals.
Geopolitics intervened. Turkey's position on Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370, along with its close military cooperation with Pakistan, made New Delhi wary. HSL's proximity to the Ship Building Centre, where India's nuclear-armed submarines are built, added to the concerns. The shipyard was instructed to put the project on hold.
The deadlock ended in 2023. The Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the project on August 16. On August 25, the ministry signed a contract worth about Rs 19,000 crore with HSL, stipulating that the ships would be designed and built in India. HSL designed the ship with SEDS as the prime consultant. The keel of the first ship was laid in November 2024. A ship that was once due in 2024 is now expected to enter service around 2027.
What will the five ships change?
Once all of them are in service, the Navy will have many, larger and more capable support ships than ever before. This should help it maintain tanker support for its fleets while freeing other vessels to support long-range deployments. The contract envisages delivery of all five ships within eight years.
The programme also matters for India's shipbuilding industry. The ships have 82 per cent indigenous content, and L&T's shipbuilding arm is a major subcontractor, building components for two of them. For HSL, a yard that has long struggled to establish itself, this is its largest naval programme.
There are caveats. Large, slow support ships are high-value targets in a conflict and need escorts of their own. The gains in capability also depend on HSL delivering the remaining four ships on schedule, something the programme's history gives little reason to take for granted.
How does this fit the Navy's Indian Ocean role?
The Navy's commitments in the region have grown steadily. Indian warships have maintained a continuous presence in the Gulf of Aden since 2008 and have operated near the Strait of Hormuz since 2019 under Operation Sankalp. Since 2017, the Navy has also followed a mission-based deployment strategy, keeping ships on station around the clock at key choke points.
Deployments have grown in scale during crises. Between December 2023 and March 2024, as piracy and attacks on shipping returned, the Navy deployed more than 5,000 personnel and over 21 ships, logging more than 450 ship-days at sea. Amid the current conflict in West Asia, three Indian warships are escorting merchant vessels through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait; two months earlier, there were six.
Every one of these deployments depends on fuel and supplies delivered at sea. Other navies operating in the region understand this. China's anti-piracy task forces, for instance, have been present in the Gulf of Aden since 2008 and have typically sailed with their own replenishment ship.
Surya and her sister ships will not fire missiles or hunt submarines. But they will determine how far, and for how long, India's warships can remain deployed in the Indian Ocean.