Analysis How Indian Navy is Transitioning from Russian Dependence to Indigenous Innovation with Western-Inspired Designs

The Indian Navy is undergoing a significant transformation, moving away from its long-standing dependence on Russian-origin platforms towards a new era of indigenous shipbuilding.

This strategic pivot, driven by the "Atmanirbhar Bharat" (Self-Reliant India) initiative, emphasizes domestically built warships that increasingly incorporate Western design philosophies focused on stealth, modularity, and network-centric warfare.

This shift is clearly demonstrated by the navy's latest and future classes of frontline combat vessels, which are being constructed at Indian shipyards and equipped with a formidable array of homegrown and jointly-developed systems.

New Generation of Indigenous Frigates​

A leading example of this new direction is the Project 17A Nilgiri-class of stealth frigates.

These 6,700-tonne warships, constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in Mumbai and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) in Kolkata, mark a substantial advancement over previous designs.

The lead ship, INS Nilgiri, was commissioned on January 15, 2025, heralding a new chapter in India's naval capabilities.

The frigates feature sloped superstructures and advanced infrared suppression systems to reduce their visibility to radar and heat sensors.

They are powered by a modern CODAG (Combined Diesel and Gas) propulsion system, offering a balance of speed and endurance.

Their combat potential is built around indigenous systems, including the powerful BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, the Barak-8 surface-to-air missile (SAM) system for air defence, and the advanced HUMSA-NG sonar for detecting submarines.

Advanced Domestically-Built Destroyers​

Further showcasing India's growing prowess in warship construction is the Project 15B Visakhapatnam-class of destroyers.

These 7,400-tonne vessels, also built by MDL, are among the most advanced warships ever built in the country.

The final ship of this class, INS Surat, was also commissioned on January 15, 2025, completing a major milestone for Indian naval self-reliance.

These destroyers are designed for network-centric operations, meaning they can share real-time combat information with other naval assets.

They possess significant stealth features and are armed with a potent mix of weaponry, including BrahMos missiles, Barak-8 SAMs, and locally developed anti-submarine torpedoes, reflecting a successful fusion of Indian innovation and Western design principles.

A Glimpse into the Future​

Looking ahead, the Indian Navy is planning even more ambitious platforms that will cement its position as a top-tier maritime force.

The planned Project 18 Next-Generation Destroyers (NGD) are envisioned as 10,000-tonne warships equipped with futuristic technologies.

These may include directed energy weapons like lasers, electromagnetic railguns for high-speed projectiles, and a sophisticated integrated electric propulsion system for enhanced efficiency and a lower acoustic signature.

These destroyers will be designed to operate as the command-and-control hub of carrier battle groups.

In parallel, the navy has received government approval for a new line of seven next-generation frigates.

These vessels are expected to build upon the successes of the Project 17A design, with a strong emphasis on modularity.

This Western-inspired concept will allow for easier integration of future technologies, such as hypersonic missiles and unmanned aerial or underwater vehicles, ensuring the fleet remains modern and adaptable to evolving threats.

This strategic shift underscores a clear vision for a powerful and self-reliant Indian Navy, capable of safeguarding India's interests across the Indo-Pacific.

 

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[Beast Incarnate]

The Indian Navy should consider building frigates similar to the Russian Gorshkov class, which displace around 4000-5000 tons. Even the Russian Navy has heavily relied on corvettes. Their corvettes were significantly armed, even in the 500-1000 ton range, as demonstrated in 1971 when Indian Navy corvettes acquired from the USSR devastated the Pakistan Navy with their Styx missiles. Russia even arms its new 800-ton class corvettes with P-800 Oniks, Kalibr, or even Zircon missiles.

 

[Flanker]

We need more destroyers now

 

[SK]

I hope that Indian-Govt will consider to put Aircraft Jet & Marine-Gas Turbine Engines under direct purview of PMO.

I hope that for next generation IN Naval ships the Engines & majority of system will be Indigenous.

 

[Sunny]

The Indian Navy should consider building frigates similar to the Russian Gorshkov class, which displace around 4000-5000 tons. Even the Russian Navy has heavily relied on corvettes. Their corvettes were significantly armed, even in the 500-1000 ton range, as demonstrated in 1971 when Indian Navy corvettes acquired from the USSR devastated the Pakistan Navy with their Styx missiles. Russia even arms its new 800-ton class corvettes with P-800 Oniks, Kalibr, or even Zircon missiles.

Agreed, we should build more heavily armed frigates similar to Gorskhov class than focus on few larger Crusier type warships. With potent weapons like Brahmos and future hypersonic missiles it makes more sense to have a larger fleet with 16-32 SSM and 32-48 SAMs each.

 

[Joydeep Ghosh]

We need more destroyers now

It's not just about firepower; it's about effectiveness. Destroyers are like heavyweight boxers; they have more firepower, but the problem is that they are very expensive, whereas frigates are like medium-weight boxers, are less expensive, nimble, and just like these boxers, are more effective pound for pound.

 

[Anant]

The Indian Navy should consider building frigates similar to the Russian Gorshkov class, which displace around 4000-5000 tons. Even the Russian Navy has heavily relied on corvettes. Their corvettes were significantly armed, even in the 500-1000 ton range, as demonstrated in 1971 when Indian Navy corvettes acquired from the USSR devastated the Pakistan Navy with their Styx missiles. Russia even arms its new 800-ton class corvettes with P-800 Oniks, Kalibr, or even Zircon missiles.

No, we do not need the Gorshkov-class. What we can (and should) do is to up-arm our existing major surface combatants, and build a hypothetical Project 17C destroyer. Hear me out:

1. The Shivalik- and Nilgiri-classes need to be up-armed. Each of these large frigates should carry atleast 56-64 VLS cells for SAMs besides 8 BrahMos and 8 shorter-ranged AShMs. For the Talwar-class, simply adding in 4-8 shorter-ranged AShMs like the NASM-MR would suffice. All frigates need to receive new and Improved point defence systems.

2. The destroyer fleet also needs to be significantly up-armed, perhaps to carry 64-96 VLS cells for SAMs, besides getting new defensive systems.

3. The corvette fleet needs to be rebuilt so as to incorporate SAMs for self-defence, and the ASW-SWC design needs to either be reworked or junked and started afresh to get smaller corvettes which can perform those same duties and actually have something more than 3 machine guns for self-defense.

4. Regarding the Project 17C destroyer: The Nilgiri-class hull-form can be expanded somewhat to form the basis of a new class of 8,500-9,000 ton destroyers. Having, say, 3 destroyers in this class, each carrying 80-96 VLS cells for SAMs, 4-6 HWT tubes, plus a 5" gun and 16-24 AShMs (a mix of BrahMos and NASM-MRs) would be a very potent fleet escort (oh, and skip the near-useless RBU-6000s). The Nilgiri-class hull form is more flexible than the Delhi-class hull form is, and in any case, the lack of Ukrainian gas turbines would force a redesign of the Project 15 hull form (which is shared between the Delhi-, Kolkata-, and Visakhapatnam-classes).

There is a reason we do not need the Gorshkov-class. Essentially, those ships occupy a role that we do not need. The reason Russia built the Gorshkov-class needs to be understood:

The Russians realised they had no chance of replacing their Soviet-era fleet of surface combatants one-for-one, and with these ships becoming both increasingly obsolete (and in some cases, simply rusting away at anchor as scrap metal), and needed a solution. The solution they came up with was to build ships that were individually more powerful, and that way, in theory, a smaller number of ships would maintain the same hitting power. This is the reason you see ships like the Steregushchiy- and Gremyashchiy-classes of corvettes and the Gorshkov-class frigates. This was to be followed by the much hyped Lider-class destroyers.

Where they mucked it up was twofold: Firstly, their utterly stupid decision to annex Crimea in 2014 put sanctions on this shipbuilding project that pushed it back by 30 years. Secondly, somewhere along the way, someone decided to also redefine how these more powerful ships would be used, and someone also decided to build a bunch of smaller, less powerful ships to bridge the gap between small patrol boats and something like a Steregushchiy or a Gremyashchiy.

Essentially, what this redefinition of role meant was that the Soviets started back where they were: The new small ships (like the Buyan- and Karakurt-classes) essentially became corvettes by role and capability. The Steregushchiy- and Gremyashchiy-classes were pushed to the role of frigates (alongside the Gepard-class 'frigates' as well as the Grigorovich-class and the Neustrashimy-class), which was helped along by their increased capabilities. With the Lider-class (which had been planned as something between a destroyer and a cruiser) being well and truly killed off by post-2014 sanctions (because, as the Russians realised to their surprise, invading your neighbour for no reason has consquences), the Russians simply forced the Gorshkov-class to essentially be destroyers.

The newer Gorshkov-class frigates that have seen increases to their offensive firepower are these pseudo-destroyers, and the pipe dream that is called the Super Gorshkov-class are essentially the new cruisers.

Finally, coming to why we do not need the Gorshkov-class: We have our own destroyers, and we have our own frigates. All these ships need to be uparmed, yes, but that is far easier to do than to try and rely on Russia for a ship design that those folks have taken, on average, around 12 years per ship to build. That is such an abysmal construction time that would make MDL and GRSE look like European shipyards.

 

[Anant]

We need more destroyers now

Up-arming our present destroyers and frigates will suffice for now. The Navy has a bunch of other priority items too (SSKs, SSNs, CV, MCMVs, LHDs / LPDs, LSTs, LCUs, etc.), and a focus there would be beneficial.

 

[vikrant rao]

"...aligning with US & European trends for hypersonic missiles or unmanned platforms." When the West doesn't have a single operational hypersonic delivery platform, while the Russians have two or three already, why should we still look to the Europeans and Americans for design inspiration? Does the author think warships are supposed to look like Ferraris and Teslas? All this talk of sloped superstructure, etc., is meaningless. Just look at the USS Zumwalt debacle to see how you can go overboard with sophistication instead of basics. The Ukraine war has shown that Russian designs are robust, cheap, and serviceable—exactly what India needs. In naval terms, the Russians focus on functionality, not treating the Navy as an arrowhead in the day and age of USVs, hypersonics, drone warfare, and AI that have rendered bulky platforms useless.

 

[Avada kedavra]

They took inspiration from Western designs for the Arjun tanks as well. If Western designs were preferable, then why did the Indian military buy so much Russian junk for so long?

 

[Rational Guy]

@Anant
Instead of 17C maybe it's better to occupy ourselves with Project 18 class. We need Project 18 class to confront Chinese nuclear CBG which will enter IOR around 2035 or after.

 

[Prince singh Rawat]

"...aligning with US & European trends for hypersonic missiles or unmanned platforms." When the West doesn't have a single operational hypersonic delivery platform, while the Russians have two or three already, why should we still look to the Europeans and Americans for design inspiration? Does the author think warships are supposed to look like Ferraris and Teslas? All this talk of sloped superstructure, etc., is meaningless. Just look at the USS Zumwalt debacle to see how you can go overboard with sophistication instead of basics. The Ukraine war has shown that Russian designs are robust, cheap, and serviceable—exactly what India needs. In naval terms, the Russians focus on functionality, not treating the Navy as an arrowhead in the day and age of USVs, hypersonics, drone warfare, and AI that have rendered bulky platforms useless.

Tho you're right for hypersonic part as west doesn't yet have any operational hypersonic weapon deployed in it's forces but thats coz they never prioritized it, US especially had a head start but abandoned it(the boeing waverider), now there are many hypersonic weapons program ongoing some are in testing phase and some are in prototype phase specifically in US,

AGM-183A ARRW (Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon) – Air-launched boost-glide hypersonic missile, tested on B-52 bombers.

Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) – Powered hypersonic cruise missile for fighters like the F-15EX; being developed by Raytheon/Northrop Grumman with an estimated deployment around 2027–2030.

Dark Eagle (Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon – LRHW) – Army ground-launched boost-glide missile with a range of 1,725+ miles.

Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) – Navy version of the Army's Dark Eagle for submarines and destroyers.
And much more.

but the thing is west overall has much more to offer us compared to Russia tho that doesn't means we should stop buying russian weapons but should look after alternatives too.

 

[desigandu]

Bharat needs a bigger, more powerful and heavily armed navy fast but that will require heavy funding and faster built of ships, subs and support vessels! Our ambitions and capacity are not in synch thus need a boost!

There is progress but too slow to become a blue water navy that can dominate IOR and regions by 2030!

 

[Anant]

@Anant
Instead of 17C maybe it's better to occupy ourselves with Project 18 class. We need Project 18 class to confront Chinese nuclear CBG which will enter IOR around 2035 or after.

True, Sir. However, the Project 18 destroyer is still in the very early stages of design. Moreover, a number of technologies and systems intended for use on the ships are still a few years away, not to mention the necessary bureaucratic and financial approvals for the ship. Do consider that given the size and capability of these ships, they will be very expensive.

Oh, and Indian shipyards are now starting to get better at building mid-sized warships at a better pace. A large destroyer (technically, a cruiser, because that is essentially what the Project 18s are) may well end up taking a pretty long time to build. As such, I don't actually see these ships entering service until the late 2030s.