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The Indian Navy commissioned INS Nipun, the second Diving Support Vessel of the Nistar class, at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, on 31 August 2026.
The ceremony was presided over by Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, Chief of the Naval Staff, in the presence of Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command.
The ship was indigenously designed and built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam, and supports saturation, air and heliox diving, remotely operated underwater systems, dynamic positioning, and an onboard life-support and medical complex.
It can support submarine rescue operations, a capability the Chief of the Naval Staff said only a handful of navies possess, positioning India as the 'Preferred Submarine Rescue Partner' in the region and adding to its capacity for underwater salvage and HADR missions.
INS Nipun will be based on the West Coast under the Western Naval Command; its motto is 'Far Beneath, Few Beyond', and the crew's watchwords are 'Nischay, Nirbhay, Nipun'.
Three technologies make deep underwater work possible, and INS Nipun carries all of them. Saturation diving solves the decompression problem: a diver's tissues absorb inert gas under pressure and must decompress slowly on return, which at depth can take days. Rather than pay that price every dive, saturation divers live in a pressurised chamber aboard ship at the working depth's pressure, are transferred to the seabed in a bell, and decompress once at the end of a weeks-long assignment. Heliox — a helium-oxygen mixture — replaces the nitrogen in ordinary air, because nitrogen becomes narcotic at depth and dense air becomes hard to breathe; helium is light and non-narcotic, though it makes voices squeak and drains body heat. Dynamic positioning is what makes the ship a stable base: computer-controlled thrusters hold the vessel over a fixed point on the seabed against wind, current and swell, without anchoring — essential when divers or a rescue vehicle are tethered below. Together with the ship's life-support and hyperbaric medical complex, these turn a hull into a platform from which humans can work hundreds of metres down.
Simple Analogy: Instead of climbing down a mountain and back up for every hour of work, saturation divers move house to the altitude they are working at, stay there for weeks, and make the long climb only once.
The defence public sector shipyard that designed and built both Nistar-class DSVs. Its work on this class is cited as evidence of India's ability to build technologically complex specialist naval platforms rather than only combatants.
The Indian Navy's western operational command, under which INS Nipun will be based on the West Coast. The Navy keeps submarine rescue assets on both coasts so that a distressed submarine on either seaboard can be reached quickly.
Operates the vessel. Its three operational commands are Western (Mumbai), Eastern (Visakhapatnam) and Southern (Kochi, the training command), with the tri-service Andaman and Nicobar Command at Port Blair.
The release frames INS Nipun as a step towards self-reliance, with nearly 75 per cent indigenous content and design as well as construction done in India. Specialist auxiliaries are a harder indigenisation test than warships in some ways, because the diving and life-support systems have no domestic civilian market to draw on.
INS stands for Indian Naval Ship and is used for commissioned vessels of the Indian Navy. Commissioning is the formal act — marked here by the hoisting of the commissioning pennant — that puts a ship into operational service; before it, a vessel is delivered but not yet 'INS'.
The Navy's submarine rescue systems are split between the West and East Coasts for redundancy and quick response. INS Nipun joins the western side under the Western Naval Command; her sister INS Nistar serves the same role for the fleet.
The Chief of the Naval Staff noted that all diving systems were proved role-worthy during sea trials in a single sortie — unusual for a platform of this complexity, and the reason the ship moved from delivery on 30 July 2026 to commissioning within about a month.
Defence Current Affairs > Naval Inductions and Indigenous Shipbuilding
GS Paper 3 > Security > Defence Indigenisation and Maritime Capability
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General Awareness > Current Affairs
Naval commissionings are asked every cycle in defence, SSC and railway general awareness, usually on the builder, the class and the command.
A purpose-built ship providing the diving complex, life support, medical facilities and station-keeping needed for sustained deep underwater work.
A technique in which divers live in a pressurised chamber at working-depth pressure for the duration of an assignment, decompressing only once at the end.
A helium-oxygen breathing mixture used at depth in place of air, because nitrogen becomes narcotic and dense under pressure.
Computer-controlled thrusters that hold a ship over a fixed point without anchoring, against wind, current and swell.
Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle — a manned submersible that mates with a disabled submarine's hatch to evacuate its crew; India's first was commissioned on 12 December 2018.
Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief — a standing role of the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean Region.