India launches ₹1 Lakh Crore Indigenous Warship Programme

The Indian Navy is preparing three major indigenous warship programmes valued at roughly ₹1 lakh crore (about $12 billion). Project 15C will build four next‑generation guided‑missile destroyers at an estimated ₹50,000 crore, enhancing air‑defence and strike capacities. Project 17B calls for six advanced stealth frigates costing around ₹40,000 crore, to be split equally between Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers. Project 18A, the most ambitious, aims to construct six large surface combatants of 14,000–15,000 tonnes, incorporating advanced sensors, missile‑defence systems and long‑range endurance; this project remains in early planning stages. All three initiatives support India’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat drive, seek to boost domestic shipbuilding, and are intended to strengthen the Navy’s operational reach in the Indian Ocean Region and the broader Indo‑Pacific.

The programmes are positioned as a transformative upgrade to the Navy’s surface fleet, building on the capabilities of the Kolkata‑class (Project 15A) and Visakhapatnam‑class (Project 15B) destroyers and the earlier Project 17A frigates. By expanding indigenous construction capacity across multiple shipyards, the plan aims to maintain a qualitative edge amid rising strategic competition in the region.