India’s defense ministry has signed contracts worth than more than INR 538.8 billion ($5.6 billion) with Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) and Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) for the construction of eight next-generation corvettes for the Indian Navy. Though the programme is widely viewed as a capability addition, it is expected to address a pressing priority of replacing the oldest hulls before they leave service, says GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform.

GlobalData’s “Aerospace and Defense Fleet Size Dataset,” reveals that 41.2% of India’s corvette fleet has an average age of more than 30 years, while a further 23.5% falls within the 20 to 30-year age bracket. Only 35.3% of the fleet has an average age of less than 10 years. The induction of next-generation corvettes is expected to support the replacement of aging surface combatants, including legacy Khukri-class and Kora-class vessels, while introducing more modern capabilities into the fleet.

Harpreet Sidhu, Aerospace and Defense Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Close to two-thirds of India’s corvette fleet is 20 years old or older, and the oldest tier has begun to leave service. INS Khukri was retired in December 2021 and INS Kirpan was transferred to Vietnam in July 2023. The two remaining Khukri-class ships entered service in 1990 and 1991 and were built around the Soviet-designed P-15 Termit missile. Replacing hulls of that age is primarily a question of keeping enough ships at sea, because a corvette in the last years of its service life tends to spend more time on maintenance than on patrol. The new corvettes therefore protect fleet numbers first and enhance capability second.”

The need to maintain sufficient corvette numbers is heightened by China’s sustained naval and research-vessel presence in the Indian Ocean region. In February 2025, India’s Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi, said that the People’s Liberation Army Navy keeps six to eight combatants in the Indian Ocean region at any given time, alongside a large number of research vessels.

Sidhu continues: “Escorting merchant shipping, shadowing foreign warships, and holding a surveillance picture across the Indian Ocean all depend on hulls that can remain at sea for long periods. The stealth design and multi-role configuration of the new corvettes would give the Navy platforms suited to those tasks, and allow the older Kora-class ships, commissioned between 1998 and 2004, to be retired on a managed schedule rather than a forced one.”

Pakistan is also strengthening its undersea warfare capability in the Arabian Sea through the phased acquisition and construction of eight Hangor-class submarines. In September 2026, Pakistan announced that its first Hangor-class submarine, commissioned in April 2026, had completed a maiden live firing of an anti-ship cruise missile in the North Arabian Sea. Pakistan has ordered eight boats, four to be built in China and four domestically.

Sidhu concludes: “India now faces pressure from two directions, a sustained Chinese naval and survey presence in the Indian Ocean and a growing Pakistani submarine force in the Arabian Sea that has begun firing anti-ship missiles. Neither threat can be met by a fleet whose oldest ships are approaching four decades of service. Renewing the corvette force gives the Navy enough modern hulls to address both threats, using an indigenous design that supports sovereign control over long-term support.”

Source:Global Data