INS Anjadip: The story behind the Navy’s latest warship name

The Indian Navy connected Friday (February 27, 2026) commissioned INS Anjadip, a warship aimed astatine augmenting its anti-submarine warfare capabilities and coastal surveillance and 1 that comes with state-of-the-art combat features.

Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi commissioned the vessel astatine the Chennai Port, alongside the beingness of elder Navy and cardinal authorities officials.

This is the 3rd of the 8 vessels being built nether the anti-submarine warfare shallow h2o trade project. INS Anjadip, undertook an astir 4 years and 2 months for completion. On April 29, 2019, Ministry of Defence signed a declaration with Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE). Three years aboriginal connected June 17, 2022, GRSE started the keel laying enactment astatine the Kattupalli shipyard, involving carnal assembly of the slipway.

Eventually, the warship was launched connected June 13, 2023, successful Kattupalli.

Why ‘Anjadip’?

The warship ‘Anjadip’ is named aft the land disconnected Karwar successful northbound Karnataka. Strategically, the determination to sanction ‘Anjadip’ is to bolster Navy’s capableness to safeguard India’s immense maritime interests on coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The vessel is packed with an indigenous, cutting-edge Anti-Submarine Warfare weapons and sensor package, including the hull-mounted sonar Abhay, and equipped with Lightweight Torpedoes and ASW Rockets. The 77-metre-long vessel features a high-speed water-jet propulsion system, enabling it to execute a apical velocity of 25 knots for accelerated effect and sustained operations.

Built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Kolkata, INS Anjadip is simply a state-of-the-art vas specifically designed to code the challenges of the littoral combat environment--coastal and shallow waters captious for the nation’s security, the Navy said.

Besides the Anti-Submarine Warfare role, the warship is besides equipped to instrumentality up coastal surveillance, Low-Intensity Maritime Operations and Search and Rescue operations.

Why is it called Dolphin Hunter?

INS Anjadip is nicknamed arsenic “Dolphin Hunter” owed to its specialised absorption connected the detection, tracking, and neutralisation of force submarines successful coastal areas. The vas has in-built precocious sonar systems, particularly the Hull Mounted Sonar Abhay, which operates by utilizing acoustic principles akin utilized by dolphins to navigate and hunt underwater.

INS Anjadip is engineered to run stealthily for littoral (near-shore) combat dissimilar ample destroyers that conflict successful “noisy” coastal environments. Significantly, it tin destruct the inheritance sound to find “silent” diesel-electric oregon midget submarines that fell successful the shallow seabed.

In addition, INS Anjadip’s water-jet propulsion system enables it to execute speeds of 25 knots and provides precocious manoeuvrability, giving it ample scope to “hunt” and weave done compact coastal corridors conscionable arsenic a dolphin would.

Anjadip joins the Indian Navy arsenic a befitting successor to her illustrious predecessor, the past of the Petya-class corvettes, which served the federation with favoritism crossed varied operational deployments for astir 3 decades from 1972 to 2003, Admiral Tripathi pointed out.

“Beyond the ship, Anjadip besides resonates profoundly successful our naval past arsenic it bears the sanction of an island, that stood witnesser to decisive enactment by the Indian Navy successful Dec 1961 arsenic portion of Operation Chutney that culminated successful the liberation of Goa. That tone of resolve, valour, bold enactment and safeguarding nationalist maritime interests astatine immoderate cost— is the enduring bequest that this Anjadip carries forward,” Admiral Tripathi added.

India’s number of warships

The Indian Navy has an operating fleet of astir 145 to 150 commissioned ships and submarines till February 2026. The fig nevertheless changes owed to ongoing phases of committee and decommisioning.

In a large boost to India’s defence strength, the Navy is connected way to committee 19 warships successful 2026, the highest ever successful the history.

(With PTI Inputs)