Key Points

The Navy wants to acquire eight Next Generation Corvettes, and GRSE, the only shipyard to have delivered over 110 warships to the country's maritime defence forces, had participated in the competitive bidding process. When the commercial bids were opened on May 21 at the Commercial Negotiations Committee (CNC) meeting convened by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) at New Delhi, GRSE emerged as the lowest bidder (L1). The lowest bidder will be awarded the contract to build five Next Generation Corvettes at an estimated cost of about Rs 25,000 crore.

GRSE is already building four Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels (NGOPV) for the Navy, apart from three Advanced Guided Missile Frigates, seven Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts, and two Survey Vessels (Large). The first in the series of eight Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts being built at GRSE was recently delivered to the Navy. GRSE has the necessary experience to build advanced Corvettes. In the past, it built three Khukri-class and four Kora-class Guided-Missile Corvettes. Later, it built four Kamorta-class Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvettes.

Meanwhile, on anticipated lines, the Bangladesh government has cancelled its order for an advanced ocean-going tug with GRSE. This decision will have no impact on GRSE's finances. The order was worth about US$ 21 million (approximately Rs 179.75 crore). GRSE's order book stood at Rs 22,680.75 crore as on March 31, 2025. The contribution of the proposed tug for Bangladesh was a mere 0.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, GRSE also successfully completed the sea acceptance firing trials of the indigenous Naval Surface Gun NSG (30mm) with pinpoint accuracy using a sophisticated indigenous Electro Optical Fire Control System. The sea trials conducted onboard one of the GRSE-designed and constructed Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASW SWC) signal a strategic shift within GRSE towards being a capable weapon manufacturing company in addition to being shipbuilders to the nation.

This significant achievement has been made possible with a very strong tie-up between GRSE and M/s BHSEL (Hyd), as well as M/s Elbit Systems Land, who are the technology and production partners for the Gun project. Two years of extensive efforts have yielded 60 per cent indigenous content in the product, which will significantly increase with subsequent orders. The gun has undergone rigorous quality checks in the factory prior to extensive sea trials with firing on live targets. The gun system is highly accurate and reliable and will be an extremely potent addition to the Indian Navy's inventory of technologically superior weapon systems.

- IANS