NEW DELHI: State-run Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) on Friday delivered Mangrol, the third of eight anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft (ASW-SWC) being built for the Indian Navy at Kochi. This brings the number of these coastal submarine hunters handed over under a 16-vessel programme to seven, now moving into its most productive phase. The vessel will now undergo pre-commissioning procedures before joining the fleet. Six shallow water sub-hunters have already been commissioned. Mangrol is part of a wider surge in inductions this year. As reported earlier, the Navy expects to commission 18 warships in 2026, its largest single-year force accretion.
Mangrol, named after the coastal town in Gujarat, was launched in 2023 along with sister ships Mahe and Malvan. Mahe, the lead ship, was delivered and commissioned last year, while Malvan was delivered in March and commissioned at Karwar in July. Five more vessels are under construction at Kochi, with deliveries expected through 2028. The inductions come amid growing Chinese underwater activity in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) , where People’s Liberation Army Navy submarines and survey vessels have been deploying with increasing regularity and as Pakistan begins fielding eight Chinese-origin Hangor-class boats fitted with air-independent propulsion, which allows a conventional submarine to stay submerged far longer than a standard diesel-electric design. The lead boat, PNS Hangor, was commissioned at Sanya in China and reached Karachi in June.
The class has more than 80% indigenous content, with systems and components supplied by Bharat Electronics, L&T Defence, Mahindra Defence Systems, the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory and over 20 Indian MSMEs. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) cleared 16 ASW-SWCs in December 2013 at an estimated Rs 13,440 crore. Contracts worth about Rs 6,311 crore each were signed with CSL and state-run Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) in April 2019.
The vessels replace the four Soviet-origin Abhay-class corvettes, commissioned between 1989 and 1991. The last, INS Abhay, was decommissioned on October 6 last year, weeks before the first of the new craft from Kochi entered service.