India’s state-owned Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) held a steel cutting ceremony for the first of eight anti-submarine warfare shallow-water craft (ASW-SWC) on order for the Indian Navy at its partner shipyard, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), in Kattupalli, near Chennai, on 31 December 2020.

It is understood that five of the ASW-SWC hulls (with an option for one more) will be built by L&T, a private-sector shipyard, with GRSE handling the procurement of supplies, raw material, and equipment.

The vessels are being built under a contract awarded to GRSE in April 2019 valued at INR63.11 billion (USD855.2 million). Owing to Covid-19-related delays, the start of production of the first hull has slipped four months behind schedule. The tentative delivery plan calls for the handover of the first ship in October 2022, followed by two every 12 months until deliveries complete in October 2026. State-owned Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) is also building eight ASW-SWC hulls under a contract in April 2019 for the same value and with a similar delivery schedule. CSL started production on 1 December 2020.

GRSE’s variant has an overall length of 77.6 m, a beam of 10.5 m, a draft of 2.7 m, and a deep displacement of around 900 tonnes. Although the dimensions are similar to CSL’s variant, there are external differences between the two variants based on imagery released to date. The waterjet-powered ship, with a steel hull and aluminium superstructure, has been designed for a top speed of 25 kt and a range of 1800 n miles.