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Sindhughosh-class (Project 877EKM) submarines

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INS Sindhukesari completed an operational turnaround at Colombo on 2026-05-06, five months after the lead boat retired.

INS Sindhukesari completed an operational turnaround at Colombo on 6 May 2026, showing that surviving Sindhughosh-class boats remain deployable. The class's lead boat, INS Sindhughosh, was decommissioned on 19 December 2025 after 40 years, while INS Sindhudhvaj retired in 2022 and INS Sindhuvir was transferred to Myanmar in 2020. The programme began with INS Sindhughosh in 1986 and grew to ten Russian-built Kilo-family submarines with the commissioning of INS Sindhushastra in 2000. Its history also includes the loss of INS Sindhurakshak in 2013 and a fatal fire aboard INS Sindhuratna in 2014. The remaining boats preserve scarce conventional underwater capacity during India's slow replacement cycle, but age and attrition make their availability a continuing watch item.

Updated 6 May 2026

INS Sindhughosh (S55) surfaced underway in a full port-side profile at sea.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Program timeline

  1. INS Sindhukesari departed Colombo after completing an operational turnaround and associated programmes with the Sri Lanka Navy.

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  2. INS Sindhughosh was decommissioned at sunset at Naval Dockyard Mumbai after 40 years of Indian Navy service.

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  3. Indian media reported that INS Sindhukirti rejoined the Navy after a Rs 934 crore refit at Hindustan Shipyard in Visakhapatnam.

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  4. The Ministry of Defence signed a Rs 934 crore contract with Hindustan Shipyard for the normal refit of INS Sindhukirti.

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  5. INS Sindhudhvaj was decommissioned after 35 years, ending a career that included operationalising indigenous USHUS sonar, Rukmani and MSS satellite communications, inertial navigation and an indigenous torpedo fire-control system.

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  6. Myanmar commissioned India's transferred submarine as Minye Theinkhathu, its first operational submarine, at No. 3 Naval Wharf in Yangon.

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  7. INS Sindhukirti sailed from Hindustan Shipyard after completion of a nine-year refit.

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  8. A fire aboard INS Sindhuratna killed two officers; the Navy's board of inquiry later found seven officers culpable of acts of omission or commission.

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  9. An explosion aboard INS Sindhurakshak at Naval Dockyard Mumbai submerged the submarine and killed 18 service personnel.

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  10. INS Sindhushastra, the tenth and last boat of the class, was commissioned at St Petersburg with submerged-launched Klub-S anti-ship missile capability.

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  11. INS Sindhughosh, the first boat of the class, was commissioned at Riga in the Soviet Union.

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