• Indian Navy warships INS Surat, INS Nilgiri and INS Vaghsheer were commissioned at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 15.

• INS Nilgiri, the lead ship of the Project 17 Alpha (P17A) stealth frigate class, represents a significant advancement over the Shivalik-class frigates.

• Designed by the Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau and built at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), it incorporates advanced features for enhanced survivability, seakeeping and stealth, reflecting the next generation of indigenous frigates.

• INS Nilgiri is mounted with guns for close-in defence capability and effective naval gunfire. The warship is enabled to operate independently without supporting vessels and to function as the flagship of the Naval task force.

Project 17A frigates

• Project 17A frigates are a follow-on class of the P17 (Shivalik Class) frigates with improved stealth features, advanced weapons and sensors and platform management systems.

• The Navy had placed orders for seven stealth frigates, four of which are being developed by Mazagon Dock Ltd (MDL) and three by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE).

• P17A ships have been designed in-house by Navy’s Warship Design Bureau. Around 75 per cent of the orders for equipment and system of P17A ships are being placed on indigenous firms.

• The first ship of Project 17A, ‘Nilgiri’ built by MDL, was launched on September 28, 2019. 

• ‘Himgiri’, the first of the three Project 17A ships being built at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), Kolkata was on December 14, 2020.

• The third ship ‘Udaygiri’ under the project was launched on May 17, 2023. 

• ‘Dunagiri’, the fourth ship of P17A frigates, was launched in July, 2023. It was named after a mountain range in Uttarakhand.

• ‘Taragiri’, named after a hill range in the Himalayas located at Garhwal, is the fifth ship of Project 17A frigates.

• ‘Vindhyagiri’, named after the mountain range in Karnataka, is the sixth ship in this series.

• ‘Mahendragiri’, named after a mountain peak in Eastern Ghats located in the state of Odisha, is the seventh ship of the Project 17A frigates.

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