Posted On:
21 JUL 2025 11:40AM by PIB Kolkata
Kolkata; July 21, 2025
Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd. launched the 8th and last ship in a series of Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts (ASW SWCs) today.
The ship, named Ajay, was launched by Smt Priya Deshmukh, wife of Vice Admiral Kiran Deshmukh, Chief of Materiel, Indian Navy. Vice Admiral Deshmukh was the chief guest at the occasion.
Among the others present were Shri P R Hari, Chairman and Managing Director, GRSE, Shri Shantanu Bose, , Director (Shipbuilding), GRSE, Shri P Sunilkumar, Director (Corporate Planning & Personnel), GRSE, Shri Abhishek Ranjan, IOFS, CVO, GRSE, and senior officials from Indian Navy & GRSE.
This launch connects past with present: INS Ajay, originally delivered in 1961 as India’s first indigenous warship built by GRSE, set the path for domestic defence shipbuilding. Today’s Ajay, carries forward that proud heritage of GRSE’s shipbuilding process.
The first warship of this series of ASW Shallow Water Crafts, INS Arnala, was commissioned into the Navy on June 18, 2025. Androth, the second ship, has also completed its contractor sea trials successfully and is ready to be delivered.
Ajay was launched less than nine months after the launch of Abhay, the 7th vessel in the series. This highlights GRSE’s efforts to maintain delivery schedules.
While the primary role of these unique ASWSWCs is to keep the waters near the coasts clear of enemy submarines, they are versatile platforms and can participate in a variety of operations. These ships are designed and built with low draughts and they are thus capable of coastal operations. They are equally capable of Low Intensity Maritime Operations (LIMO) and laying mines.
These 77.6-metre-long and 10.5-metre-wide extremely potent warships are also capable of full-scale sub-surface surveillance in coastal waters and can carry out operations against surface platforms as well. They can carry out coordinated anti-submarine operations with aircraft.
These warships pack a lethal anti-submarine suite comprising lightweight torpedoes, ASW rockets and mines. They are also armed with 30 mm Close-in Weapons System and 12.7 mm Stabilised Remote-Control Guns. They are fitted with a Hull Mounted Sonar and a Low-Frequency Variable Depth Sonar for effective underwater surveillance.