India Commissions Its First Vessel to Integrate AI – INS Surat
On 15 January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned India’s newest destroyer, the INS Surat. The Visakhapatnam-class INS Surat is the Indian Navy’s first Artificial Intelligence-enabled warship. Its AI systems support predictive maintenance, advanced hazard analysis, and autonomous navigation, helping to make quick decisions and reduce human error.
The commissioning on 15 January was another first, with two other Indian warships entering service the same day, a submarine – the Vaghsheer and a frigate – INS Nilgiri. Prime Minister Modi highlighted that “it is for the first time that the tri-commissioning of a destroyer, frigate and submarine was being done” and noted that “over 75% of the content of INS Surat… has been developed in India itself. Indigenous content is also increasing continuously in other platforms being manufactured within the country,” . INS Surat is the fourth and final ship of the Visakhapatnam-class stealth guided-missile destroyers (Project 15B) of the Indian Navy. The ships have been designed and constructed indigenously by the Warship Design Bureau of Indian Navy and Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL).
INS Surat’s keel was laid on 07 November, 2019 and was launched on 17 May 2022, in Mumbai. The ship commenced its Contractor Sea Trials on 15 June 2024 and completed its Final Machinery Trials on 25 November 2024, within an unprecedented record time of just six months.
The ship was delivered within 31 months from launch which made this the fastest destroyer to be built in India so far. The ship was delivered to the Indian Navy on 20 December, 2024.
INS Surat is a powerful warship developed as an upgraded derivative of the preceding Kolkata class, designed to undertake a variety of different types of missions. It is 164 meters long and weighs 7,400 tons. The ship is equipped with modern weapons like Barak 8 surface-to-air missiles, BrahMos anti-ship missiles, and torpedoes, as well as a 76m main gun. The vessel also features an Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) for efficient operational management, which is one of the systems which integrate AI. It uses a Combined Gas and Gas (COGAG) propulsion system with four gas turbines which enabled the vessel to reach speeds of over 30 knots (56 km/h) during sea trials.
The Surat is one of three successor to the Kolkata-class (P-15A) destroyers and is a next-generation stealth-guided missile destroyer. The INS Surat is named after the city of Surat in Gujarat, which is known for its maritime heritage.