The first ship of the Project P17A (Nilgiri Class) stealth frigates — Nilgiri — was commissioned at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January.
The second warship, Udaygiri, being built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), was delivered to the navy on July 1.
These multi-mission frigates are capable of operating in “a ‘Blue Water’ environment dealing with both conventional and non-conventional threats” in the area of India’s maritime interests, the defence ministry has said.
The ministry on Monday shared a video on Mahendragiri being built at MDL in Mumbai.
“Mahendragiri, the 7th and most advanced Project 17A Frigate (Nilgiri Class) to be delivered in Feb 2026, showcases India’s naval legacy and future. A follow-on of the Shivalik-class, it features improved stealth, cutting-edge weapons, sensors & platform management systems – a true symbol of #AatmanirbharBharat,” it said in a post on X along with the video. The advanced ship stands as a symbol of India’s determination to “embrace its rich naval heritage,” the ministry said. The warship will be a “force multiplier” for the Indian Navy, said Additional General Manager, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Jay Varghese, in the recorded video.
Project 17A is a follow-on to the Shivalik class (Project 17) frigates active in service.
Among the seven frigates, four will be delivered by MDL, Mumbai and the remaining by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.
On Mahendragiri, Varghese said, “We are expecting it to be delivered to the Indian Navy by February 2026.”
“As with any warship building project, a lot of ancillary industry develops around a ship. We are taking equipment from so many OEMs, and all these are integrated into the ship. So, each of these OEMs in its own has been a partner with the MDL, and they have developed under ‘Atmanirbharta’, and indegenisation content has also improved, leading to ‘Atmanirbharta’,” he added.
This class of ships have more than 75 per cent of indigenous content, the MDL official said.
“The stealth features are varied. Even the shape of the ship contributes to the stealth feature,” he said.
The video also gave a glimpse of the second warship being built at MDL.
“It’s a structure that gives a smaller radar profile. For the radar profile, we are having IRSS (infra red suppression system) where the exhaust of all the engines are cooled. IRSS reduces the thermal signature, the radar profile is reduced, the noise is reduced. So, it’s a combination of many, many factors, which gives the ship a profile which may be something like a fishing boat and not a frigate of this size,” he added.
Udaygiri, the second among the seven P17A frigates, was delivered in a record time of 37 months from the date of launch, officials had earlier said.
The hull of a P17A ship is geo-symmetrically larger by 4.54 per cent as compared to a P17.
Also, these ships are fitted with an advanced weapon and sensors suite with enhanced “sleek and stealthy” features compared to the P17 class, the ministry has said.
The weapon suite comprises a supersonic surface-to-surface missile system and a medium-range surface-to-air missile system.
Defence ministry officials termed Udaygiri a modern avatar of its predecessor, the erstwhile INS Udaygiri, which was a steam ship decommissioned on August 24, 2007, after rendering 31 years of service.
The ministry has said the delivery of Udaygiri showcases the nation’s ship design, ship construction and engineering prowess enabled by a strong industrial ecosystem supported by over 200 MSMEs.
Udaygiri is the 100th ship designed and delivered by the Warship Design Bureau, it said.
