INS Tamal is the last warship to be inducted from a foreign source, in line with India’s impetus on Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India initiatives.
INS Tamal (F71) is an upgraded Krivak III class frigate of the Project 1135.6 of which seven are already in service: three Talwar class ships, built at Baltiysky shipyard, St. Petersburg, three follow-on Teg class ships and one Tushil class sister ship, built at Yantar shipyard, Kaliningrad. INS Tamal is the second of the two upgraded additional follow-on Tushil class ships, the contract for which was signed in October 2016.
The 125 meter long, 4000 ton frigate is heavily armed for its size. Armament includes eight Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles with additional range, vertically-launched Shtil MRSAM with enhanced range, upgraded A 190-01 100mm main gun with low RCS cupola, two AK-630 CIWS, an RBU-6000 urgent-attack anti-submarine rocket launcher, heavyweight torpedoes tubes and decoy launchers. The frigate is capable of embarking the upgraded Kamov Ka-28 anti-submarine and Ka-31 airborne early warning helicopters.
Many of the armament and sensors, including the Huma NG Mk2 sonar, ASW C2 system & surface surveillance radars are of Indian origin. The overall indigenous content of the ship is over 26% with over 33 systems made in India. The major Indian OEMs involved were BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited, Keltron, Nova Integrated Systems from Tata, Elcome Marine, Johnson Controls India and others.
A press release by the Indian MoD stated:
“The ship was launched on 24 February 2022. She sailed for her maiden sea trials Nov 2024, and completed an exhaustive schedule of Factory Trials State Committee Trials and the Delivery Acceptance Trials, both in harbour and at sea, by Jun 2025. The ship has successfully carried out trial firing of all her Russian weapon systems including the vertical launched surface to air missile Shtil-1, artillery weapons and torpedos.
The two vessels of the Tushil class are based on two of the three half built hulls of Project 11356R of the Russian Navy. The construction of these ships were affected by their reliance on Ukrainian Zorya Mashproekt M7N1 gas turbine engines, which became unavailable to Russia due to its actions in Crimea. The planned Admiral Butakov and Admiral Butomin became INS Tushil & INS Tamal, while Admiral Kornilov awaits her fate at Yantar.
The ship’s name, Tamal, symbolises the mythical sword used for combat by Indra – the King of the gods. Tamal is also the 51st ship produced under Indo-Russian collaborative effort in the past 65 years. INS Tamal joins the ‘Sword Arm’ of the Indian Navy, the Western Fleet, under the Western Naval Command. Two more Project 11356M frigates are being built by Goa Shipyard with technical support from Yantar. These will be inducted by 2027.
The last imported warship by the Indian Navy marks the end of a decades-long phase of acquisitions by the Navy meant to build its design and operational expertise as well as domestic industrial capability. While India has been designing and making warships for decades now with the Teg class believed to be the last of the Project 11356 frigates, the availability of half built Russian hulls of a design the Navy is familiar with is believed to have led to the deals for four Talwar lineage frigates. The induction of the two Russian hulls was originally planned to occur prior to the delivery of the homebuilt P17A Nilgiri class frigates. However, various delays meant that the Tushil class and Nilgiri class are being inducted nearly in parallel. Meanwhile the Nilgiri is a much larger class with substantially higher indigenous content and domestic value generation. The last imported warship project has thus arguably highlighted and is expected to solidify the Navy’s effort to focus on domestically built and in a majority of cases, domestically designed surface combatants & submarines.
