India commissions third Kochi-built submarine hunter as navy promises a new ship every 40 to 50 days

India's navy commissioned Mangrol, the third Mahe-class anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on Monday, 12 October 2026, adding another coastal submarine hunter to a fleet that its commanders say is growing at a rapid pace.

Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, who heads Western Naval Command and presided over the ceremony, said the navy had commissioned 10 ships so far in 2026 and expected eight more to enter service before the end of the year. He put the current fleet at 151 platforms, made up of 131 ships and 20 submarines.

Vatsayan said 42 ships were under construction at Indian shipyards and that initial approval, known as Acceptance of Necessity, had been granted for another 69 ships, six submarines and 120 fast interceptor craft. He said the fleet was projected to pass 170 platforms within the next few years, with a new ship commissioned every 40 to 50 days, and that by 2034 about 60 percent of the navy's platforms should be less than 10 years old on average.

What the ship does

Mangrol displaces about 900 tonnes and runs on three diesel engines driving waterjets, which the navy says gives it the agility to work in shallow, confined water where larger warships are limited. It carries the Abhay hull-mounted sonar, lightweight torpedoes, an indigenous anti-submarine rocket launcher and the Maareech advanced torpedo decoy system.

Besides hunting submarines, the ship is meant for underwater surveillance, low-intensity maritime operations and mine warfare tasks, working with maritime patrol aircraft, helicopters and other warships. The navy said it would strengthen protection of ports, harbours and coastal approaches, and that more than 80 percent of its content is Indian.

A 16-ship programme

The Mahe-class craft are replacing the Abhay-class corvettes that entered service between 1989 and 1991. India's Defence Acquisition Council approved 16 shallow-water anti-submarine vessels in 2013, and the order was split between Cochin Shipyard and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers after a 2017 tender in which Cochin Shipyard quoted 5,400 crore rupees.

Mangrol is the third of eight being built in Kochi, after Mahe, commissioned in Mumbai on 24 November 2025, and Malvan, commissioned at Karwar on 22 July 2026. The ship takes its name from the fishing harbour of Mangrol in Gujarat's Junagadh district and revives the name of a minesweeper, INS Mangrol (M85), that served until April 2004. The Press Information Bureau had announced the ceremony on 9 October.

Taken together, the figures Vatsayan gave suggest the shallow-water craft are only one strand of a wider build-up. If the navy holds to one commissioning every 40 to 50 days, it would add roughly seven to nine ships a year, a pace that would steadily lower the average age of a fleet still carrying corvettes from the early 1990s.