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'Mangrol', the third Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft built by Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), Kochi, was delivered to the Indian Navy on 21 August 2026.
The craft has over 80 per cent indigenous content and is equipped for underwater surveillance, anti-submarine warfare in coastal waters, Low-Intensity Maritime Operations (LIMO) and mine warfare; it is propelled by waterjets and carries torpedoes, anti-submarine rockets, and advanced radars and sonars.
The name comes from Mangrol, a coastal town and minor port in Junagadh district of Gujarat and a prominent harbour for the marine fishing industry, and revives the name of an earlier Indian Naval minesweeper, INS Mangrol, which served until 2004.
Hunting submarines in deep ocean and hunting them near a coast are close to different problems. In shallow water, sonar returns bounce off the seabed and off the sharp temperature and salinity layers that river outflows create, so a submarine hiding against a cluttered bottom is far harder to pick out than one in open ocean. A large destroyer or frigate is also poorly suited to the task - it draws too much water to operate close inshore and is an expensive asset to risk in confined seas. Hence a purpose-built small craft: shallow draught, waterjet propulsion rather than conventional propellers so it can manoeuvre in restricted depths, hull-mounted and towed sonars tuned for littoral conditions, and short-range weapons - lightweight torpedoes and anti-submarine rockets - suited to close contacts. The same platform absorbs two related jobs at little extra cost. Mine warfare uses much of the same sensor suite, and Low-Intensity Maritime Operations - patrolling against smuggling, infiltration and small-boat threats - needs exactly this size of vessel. That combination is what a coastal navy actually spends most of its time doing, and it is the gap the ASW-SWC programme was created to fill.
Simple Analogy: A frigate is a highway patrol car. An ASW shallow water craft is the smaller vehicle you need for narrow lanes - slower over distance, but the only thing that can work where the streets are tight.
A public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and India's largest shipbuilding and ship-repair yard. It built INS Vikrant, India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, and is building eight of the sixteen Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft, of which Mangrol is the third delivered.
The Kolkata defence shipyard building the other eight ASW-SWC, whose lead ship INS Arnala was commissioned in June 2025; the vessels are constructed in partnership with L&T at Kattupalli.
The recipient service, under the Ministry of Defence; the ASW-SWC fleet is intended for coastal anti-submarine patrol, replacing older Abhay-class corvettes in the littoral role.
The Indian Navy reuses the names of decommissioned ships, so 'Mangrol' carries forward the identity of a minesweeper retired in 2004. Names of these small craft are drawn from coastal towns and ports - Mahe, Malvan, Mangrol - which is itself a memorable pattern for questions.
Over 80 per cent indigenous content is the figure the Ministry of Defence uses to mark a platform as substantially domestic; the ASW-SWC programme draws on BEL, L&T Defence, Mahindra Defence Systems, NPOL and more than twenty MSMEs.
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, coastal security became a naval as well as a police responsibility, and small patrol platforms capable of Low-Intensity Maritime Operations are part of that architecture.
Mangrol sits in Junagadh district on the Saurashtra coast - Gujarat has the longest coastline of any Indian state, which is why its port towns recur in naval nomenclature.
General Awareness > Defence Platforms and Exercises
General Awareness > Defence and Current Affairs
GS Paper 3 > Security > Defence Indigenisation
Ship deliveries and commissionings appear in defence and SSC general awareness through the year; the shipyard-to-ship pairing is the standard question form.
Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft - small warships designed for anti-submarine operations in coastal and shallow waters.
The eight ASW-SWC being built by Cochin Shipyard Limited; lead ship INS Mahe commissioned 24 November 2025 at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai. Mangrol is the third.
The eight ASW-SWC being built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers with L&T; lead ship INS Arnala commissioned in June 2025.
Low-Intensity Maritime Operations - patrolling against smuggling, infiltration and small-boat threats short of open conflict.
Propulsion by pumping water through a nozzle rather than by an exposed propeller, giving high manoeuvrability and a shallow draught.
A coastal town and minor port in Junagadh district, Gujarat, and a significant marine fishing harbour.