Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 21 June presided over the commissioning of three warships — INS Dunagiri, INS Sanshodhak, and INS Agray — at the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata, marking a significant expansion of the Indian Navy's indigenous combat and surveillance fleet. Naval officers associated with the newly inducted vessels detailed their advanced capabilities, underscoring the strategic weight of the occasion.

INS Agray: Small Ship, Dense Firepower

Commanding Officer Commander Sunil Malpotra urged observers not to judge the anti-submarine warfare vessel by its compact profile. 'I would like to tell you not to go by the size of this ship. It may look small, but it is densely packed with weapons and sensors. It has all the capabilities required to detect and target an adversary's submarines. Not only that, if you look at the kind of asymmetric warfare taking place on the surface, this ship also possesses significant capabilities to deal with such threats,' Malpotra said.

On its anti-submarine suite, he elaborated: 'For anti-submarine warfare, the ship is equipped with an indigenously developed sonar suite, a combat management system, indigenous rocket launchers, torpedo tubes, and a decoy system that helps divert incoming torpedoes.'

Executive Officer Lt Commander Rishabh described the commissioning journey as professionally demanding. 'The journey has been very satisfying, though professionally challenging as well. It began about 8 to 9 months ago, when we started by seeing this ship as bare steel, and now here we are, the ship is almost ready,' he said. He further noted that INS Agray is the fifth vessel in the Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft class, with a primary mission of hunting submarines in shallow waters and the littoral domain.

Engineering Officer Lt Commander Piyush highlighted the vessel's waterjet propulsion system as a technological differentiator. 'This is better in this way because the other ships we have use propeller technology. But our ship is one of the largest in the Indian Navy that has been fitted with waterjet propulsion. In a waterjet system, it takes in water and then propels it out,' he said.

INS Dunagiri: Mythology Meets Maritime Strategy

Commanding Officer Captain Divya Alok drew attention to the cultural significance embedded in the vessel's name. 'This ship is linked to our mythology in its own way. All the ships of the Giri class, that is, the P-17 Alpha class ships, have been named after mountains. Therefore, it is connected to our mythological heritage,' she said. INS Dunagiri belongs to the P-17A stealth frigate programme, a flagship initiative in India's indigenous warship construction drive.

Strategic Significance of the Triple Commissioning

The simultaneous induction of three vessels — spanning anti-submarine warfare, hydrographic survey, and surface combat roles — is being viewed as a concentrated boost to the Indian Navy's operational readiness across multiple mission profiles. Notably, the emphasis on indigenously developed sonar suites, combat management systems, and propulsion technology reflects the growing depth of India's domestic defence manufacturing ecosystem under the Atmanirbhar Bharat framework.

This comes amid heightened maritime activity in the Indian Ocean Region, where India has been expanding its naval footprint in response to evolving regional security dynamics. The commissioning of INS Sanshodhak, a hydrographic survey vessel, also strengthens the Navy's ability to map and monitor underwater terrain — a capability with both civilian and strategic applications.

What Comes Next

The three vessels are expected to be deployed across their respective operational domains in the months ahead, with INS Agray likely assigned to littoral and shallow-water patrol duties. Defence analysts will watch whether the indigenous systems aboard these ships — particularly the sonar suite and combat management platform — perform to specification under operational conditions, a key test for India's self-reliance in naval technology.