Mahe-class ASW Shallow Water Craft

The Mahe-class is a series of eight indigenous anti-submarine warfare shallow-water craft (ASW-SWC) built for the Indian Navy by Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), a sister design to the GRSE/L&T-built Arnala-class, together forming a 16-ship shallow-water ASW fleet.^[1]

Design and Role

Sharing the same core design and mission profile as the Arnala-class, Mahe-class vessels are built to hunt submarines in shallow coastal waters, complementing the deeper-water ASW capability of the Navy’s larger Kamorta-class corvettes and frigates. The first-of-class, INS Mahe, was commissioned in November 2025, becoming the first of eight planned CSL-built ASW-SWC vessels.^[1][2]

Significance

Together, the Arnala and Mahe classes give the Indian Navy a comprehensive layered shallow-water ASW capability along the country’s extensive coastline — an area of increasing strategic concern given the proliferation of quiet, hard-to-detect conventional and midget submarines in the wider Indian Ocean region.^[1]

Specifications

Sources

1. Baird Maritime, “Indian Navy commissions first Mahe-class anti-submarine corvette.”
2. Asian Military Review, “India commissions its first Mahe-class ASW-SWC corvette.”