Platform profile · India · Stealth frigate · Indian Navy
Six of seven frigates had been commissioned by 2026-07-11, with Vindhyagiri still outstanding.
On 11 July 2026, INS Mahendragiri became the sixth of seven Project 17A frigates inducted into the Indian Navy. That followed INS Dunagiri on 21 June and INS Taragiri on 3 April, while Vindhyagiri remains the sole outstanding ship at GRSE. Designed by the Navy's Warship Design Bureau and split between MDL and GRSE, these approximately 6,670-tonne frigates combine reduced signatures with BrahMos, medium-range surface-to-air missiles, MF-STAR radar and anti-submarine systems. For India, their rapid induction adds blue-water air-defence, anti-surface and anti-submarine capacity across the Indian Ocean while demonstrating domestic production of complex frontline warships.
Updated 11 Jul 2026
Verified figures
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 149 m overall length × 17.7 m beam × 5.1 m deep draft ↗ |
| Displacement | Approximately 6,670 t design deep displacement ↗ |
| Propulsion | 2 × CODOG propulsion plants ↗ |
| Maximum speed | 28 kn ↗ |
| Endurance | 5,500 nmi at economical speed; 1,000 nmi at maximum speed ↗ |
| Complement | 225 personnel ↗ |
| Anti-surface missile | BrahMos supersonic surface-to-surface missile system ↗ |
| Air-defence missiles | 32 × Barak-8 medium-range surface-to-air missiles ↗ |
| Gun armament | 76 mm main gun; 30 mm AK-630 and 12.7 mm close-in weapon systems ↗ |
| Primary radar | EL/M-2248 MF-STAR active electronically scanned-array radar ↗ |
Spec sources: grse.in ↗ · navalnews.com ↗ · usni.org ↗
Changelog
INS Mahendragiri was commissioned at Visakhapatnam as the sixth Project 17A frigate and joined the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet.
INS Dunagiri, the fifth Nilgiri-class frigate and second of the class built by GRSE, was commissioned at Kolkata alongside INS Sanshodhak and INS Agray.
INS Taragiri, the fourth Project 17A platform, was commissioned at Visakhapatnam with a reported displacement of approximately 6,670 tonnes.
INS Udaygiri and INS Himgiri were commissioned simultaneously at Visakhapatnam, the first such induction of two frontline combatants built by two different Indian shipyards.
INS Nilgiri, the lead Project 17A frigate, was commissioned at Naval Dockyard Mumbai alongside INS Surat and INS Vaghsheer.
MDL delivered Nilgiri, the first-of-class Project 17A frigate, to the Indian Navy alongside the Project 15B destroyer Surat.
President Droupadi Murmu launched Vindhyagiri, the sixth Project 17A frigate, at GRSE in Kolkata for subsequent outfitting and trials.
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The sixth and final Project 17A stealth frigate joined the Eastern Fleet at Visakhapatnam on 11 July, capping an induction run that put six ships in service in about a year and a half and halved the class's launch-to-delivery timeline.
