Defence Ministry Signs ₹53,866 Crore Contracts for Eight Next-Generation Naval Corvettes

The Ministry of Defence signed contracts worth ₹53,866.50 crore on 2 November 2026 with Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers and Goa Shipyard Limited for eight Next Generation Corvettes for the Indian Navy. GRSE will construct five vessels and GSL the remaining three. Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh attended the signing at Kartavya Bhawan-2 in New Delhi.

This is the first project in which warships designed by the Indian Navy itself will be built by defence public sector undertakings selected through competitive bidding. Previous indigenous programs typically assigned construction to a designated yard after design work. The competitive step is intended to introduce cost and schedule pressure between the two yards.

The corvettes will carry advanced missiles, weapons, and sensor suites for air, surface, and sub-surface missions. Their primary roles are anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, coastal defence, littoral combat, and maritime surveillance. They will complement the existing four Kamorta-class corvettes already in service.

The Ministry estimates the construction program will generate approximately 72 lakh person-days of employment inside the two shipyards and a further 460 lakh person-days in ancillary industries and MSMEs over the next ten years. The vessels are expected to use a high proportion of indigenous materials, equipment, and systems, consistent with the broader self-reliance targets for naval platforms.

Delivery timelines have not been published in the initial statements. Typical construction periods for corvettes of this size at Indian yards run four to six years from steel cutting to delivery, though the exact schedule will depend on detailed design freeze and vendor readiness. The competitive selection of two yards allows parallel construction, which can compress the overall fleet delivery window compared with a single-yard program.

The contracts follow Cabinet Committee on Security approval of the project. The total value of ₹53,866.50 crore covers design finalization support, construction, and initial spares for the eight hulls. Unit cost works out to roughly ₹6,733 crore per ship, a figure that includes the development share and the combat systems.

Indian Navy design teams have already produced the basic configuration. The yards will now execute detailed production design and procurement of long-lead items. Sensor and weapon integration will draw on systems already in production or under development for other naval programs, reducing some technical risk.

The operational effect is an increase in the number of hulls available for patrol and escort duties in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Corvettes of this class free larger destroyers and frigates for higher-end tasks. Eight additional ships, once delivered, represent a measurable expansion of the surface force's lower-end combat capacity.

Employment and industrial figures are projections based on historical shipyard data. Actual numbers will depend on the degree of outsourcing and the productivity achieved during construction. The Ministry has highlighted the MSME share as a deliberate feature of the program.

No foreign design partner is involved. The vessels are Navy-designed and will be built entirely at the two Indian public yards. That distinction separates this contract from earlier programs that relied on foreign design assistance or licensed production.