Stealth frigate launched into water at Goa Shipyard

The stealth frigate was launched into water on March 22, 2025 in the presence of Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth. Photo: YouTube/@Goa Shipyard Limited

The last of the four follow-on Krivak-class stealth frigates contracted from Russia and the second one under construction at Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) with technology transfer was launched into water on Saturday (March 22, 2025) in the presence of Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth.

The first of the two frigates was launched into water at GSL last year. As per schedule, GSL is scheduled to deliver the first ship to the Indian Navy in 2026 and the second one six months later and officials said that it is on track.

In October 2016, India and Russia signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement for four additional follow-on stealth frigates under which two are to be directly imported and two to be manufactured by GSL under technology transfer. A $1-billion deal was signed for the two frigates under direct purchase. Further, in November 2018 GSL signed a $500 million deal with Rosoboronexport of Russia for material, design and specialist assistance to locally manufacture two frigates and in January 2019, the contract was signed between the Indian Defence Ministry and GSL. All the ships are powered by engines from Zorya Nashproekt of Ukraine.

The first of the two ships manufactured in Russia, INS Tushil, was commissioned on December 9, 2024 at Kaliningrad in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The ship has since reached its home port in Karwar on February 14 after sailing over 12,500 nautical miles visiting eight countries across three continents through the journey. The second frigate Tamal is in advanced trails and is expected to be commissioned in June and in preparation for it the commissioning crew of around 200 personnel reached Russia last month.

While Tamal would will be the last warship to be commissioned outside the country or to be imported directly the frigate launched at GSL will likely be he last warship to be built under license from any country as the country now designs and constructs warships.

Indian Navy which had a set up a Directorate of Naval Design way back in 1970 has, for sometime now, graduated into a builder’s navy with over 60 warships being constructed in Indian Shipyards.