On November 2, 2026, the Ministry of Defence signed contracts worth ₹53,866.50 crore with Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) and Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) to build eight Next Generation Corvettes for the Indian Navy. The contracts were signed at Kartavya Bhawan-2 in New Delhi in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh.
Construction and design
GRSE will construct five corvettes and GSL will build three. The Indian Navy will design the ships indigenously, while the two Defence Public Sector Undertakings were selected through a competitive process. The Cabinet Committee on Security approved the project on October 28, 2026.
Capabilities and employment
The corvettes will have advanced missiles, weapons and sensor suites for operations across air, surface and sub-surface domains. Their planned roles include anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, coastal defence, littoral combat, surveillance and protection of maritime trade routes. Over ten years, the project is expected to generate about 72 lakh person-days of employment in shipyards and 460 lakh person-days in ancillary industries and micro, small and medium enterprises.
Important Facts for Exams
- Littoral role: Modern corvettes are intended chiefly for littoral operations; frigates suit ocean-going service because they have greater endurance and seaworthiness.
- Towed-array sonar: A towed-array sonar trails hydrophones behind a ship, distancing them from machinery noise to improve passive detection of quiet submarines.
- Modular shipbuilding: In modular warship construction, large hull blocks are fabricated separately, often with equipment pre-installed, then joined in sequence on the building berth.
