Defence ministry signs Rs 53,867-crore contracts for eight next-generation Navy corvettes

The defence ministry on Monday, 2 November, signed contracts worth Rs 53,867 crore with two public sector shipyards for eight next-generation corvettes for the Indian Navy, per Hindustan Times, citing the ministry. This piece is as of the evening of 2 November.

The contracts

Hindustan Times says Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited (GRSE) will build and supply five of the warships and Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) the remaining three, and that the contracts were signed in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh. PSU Watch says GRSE's contract is worth approximately Rs 32,000 crore, that it was signed in New Delhi on 2 November by Dinesh Kumar, Joint Secretary and Additional Member (Shipbuilding) at the Ministry of Defence, and Cdr Shantanu Bose (Retd), GRSE's Director (Shipbuilding), and that GRSE emerged as the lowest bidder.

The ministry said, as quoted by Hindustan Times, that this is the first project in which the ships will be indigenously designed by the Indian Navy and built by defence public sector undertakings selected through a competitive process. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh wrote on X, per Hindustan Times, that the project will give a significant impetus to India's shipbuilding sector by strengthening collaboration among defence PSUs, private shipyards and industrial partners including MSMEs.

The ships

According to PSU Watch, each corvette will be 127 metres long with a beam of 17.6 metres, a specified deadweight of 4,950 tonnes, a maximum speed of 26 knots and an endurance of 14 days at sea without replenishment. It says each will accommodate 11 officers and 139 sailors and be powered by a combined diesel and gas turbine arrangement (CODAG-CC) driving two controllable pitch propellers. Their proposed weapons include medium-range anti-ship missiles, medium-range surface-to-air missiles and 324 mm torpedo tubes, plus a 76 mm gun and a close-in weapon system, PSU Watch says. Hindustan Times says the ships will carry advanced missiles, weapons and sensor suites for missions across the air, surface and sub-surface domains, and links the project to the Navy's goal of full self-reliance by 2047.