The Indian Navy on Friday commissioned INS Samarthak, a Multi-Purpose Vessel (MPV) designed as a mothership for drones and a floating testbed for next-generation weapons, at the Karwar naval base in Karnataka. The commissioning by Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, the Chief of the Naval Staff, marks a double milestone: the Navy gets a dedicated platform for trials and unmanned systems, and the ship is the first major warship built by a private Indian shipyard to join the fleet.
Samarthak — which means "supporter" — is the lead vessel of its class. The second ship of the class, the Utkarsh, was launched in January 2025 and is currently undergoing sea trials before its final handover. The vessels were conceptualised, engineered and built by Larsen & Toubro at its Warship Design Centre and shipbuilding facility at Kattupalli, about 40 km north of Chennai, under an Rs 887 crore contract signed with the Defence Ministry on March 25, 2022. More than 75 per cent of the ship's content is indigenous, in line with the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
The ship's specifications reflect its specialised role. It displaces 3,750 tonnes, measures 106 metres in length with a beam of 16.8 metres, and can reach a maximum speed of 15 knots (about 27 kmph). A standout feature is its Dynamic Positioning System, which allows the vessel to hold a precise position at sea during complex manoeuvres — an essential capability for the delicate trial and recovery operations it is designed to conduct. Its crest depicts an Indian elephant emerging from the waves, symbolising strength, intelligence and agility.
At the core of Samarthak's mission is weapons and sensor development. The ship is designed as a dedicated test and trials platform where the Navy — along with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and private-sector companies — can evaluate radars, sonars, missile systems and other technologies before they are cleared for frontline warships. It can launch and recover surface, aerial and underwater targets for gunnery and anti-submarine warfare training, and fire weapons under development before recovering them for analysis. Industry reports list its trial armament as including a 76mm naval gun, 30mm autocannons, 12.7mm machine guns, a launcher for 213mm anti-submarine rockets, and both 324mm triple and 533mm twin torpedo launchers, along with an electronic warfare suite. The unusual torpedo fit for a support vessel makes sense in context: the two tube calibres allow the ship to fire both lightweight and heavyweight torpedoes under development and then recover them, supported by the dynamic positioning system.
Equally significant is the ship's role as a mothership for unmanned and autonomous systems. Samarthak is configured to deploy, operate and recover unmanned surface and aerial vehicles, giving the Navy a dedicated platform to take indigenous drone and autonomous technologies from prototype to sea trial. As navies worldwide race to integrate unmanned systems into their fleets, a vessel purpose-built to shepherd those technologies through testing shortens the development cycle considerably. Aviation facilities aboard are reported to be suitable for an HAL Dhruv or similar utility helicopter, adding aerial target work, personnel transfer and disaster-relief lift to its repertoire.
Beyond trials and drones, the ship's mandate is deliberately broad. Its planned roles include maritime surveillance and patrolling, low-intensity maritime operations, towing support for other vessels, salvage operations, marine pollution response, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). When required, it can even be converted into a hospital vessel. That versatility means the Navy gains not just a test platform but a genuine operational asset for peacetime contingencies and emergencies.
The commissioning is also a landmark for India's private defence industry. That a private shipyard has delivered a major warship to the Navy — traditionally the preserve of public-sector yards — signals the maturing of the country's defence-industrial ecosystem. L&T's execution of the programme, from design through construction, demonstrates that private players can now handle complex naval platforms end-to-end, a capability with implications for future warship programmes and exports.
Samarthak joins the fleet at a time of rapid naval expansion. The Navy is working to commission 18 warships this year — the highest number in a single year — as it responds to a changing maritime security environment. Among the other vessels in the pipeline is INS Mangrol, the third Mahe-class anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft built by Cochin Shipyard, which will add sub-hunting capability and protection for high-value assets along India's coastline at a time when Chinese-supplied submarines are increasingly active in the neighbourhood.
Defence officials describe Samarthak as filling a long-felt gap. Until now, testing new torpedoes, anti-submarine weapons and sensors often required pulling a frontline warship away from its operational duties — an expensive and disruptive proposition. A dedicated trials vessel frees the combat fleet for its primary missions while giving developers a platform configured precisely for their needs: the ability to reach a test area, hold station, run a trial serial, recover the hardware and do it all again.
The strategic logic extends to unmanned systems, where India is investing heavily but still catching up with global leaders. A mothership that can launch, control and recover diverse unmanned platforms at sea provides the infrastructure for sustained experimentation — the unglamorous but essential work that turns laboratory prototypes into deployable capabilities.
The commissioning ceremony at Karwar was attended by senior naval leadership along with Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh Lad, underlining the programme's significance for the state's growing defence-industrial footprint. Karwar, home to the Navy's expanding Project Seabird base, is set to become an increasingly important hub as the fleet grows, and Samarthak's induction there places the trials platform close to the operational areas where its services will be most in demand.
As INS Samarthak begins its service life from Karwar, with Utkarsh to follow, the Navy has acquired something it has never had before: a ship whose entire reason for being is to make every other ship in the fleet more capable. In an era when technological advantage at sea is increasingly decided in test ranges rather than shipyards alone, that may prove to be one of the most consequential inductions of the year.
(Reporting based on The Times of India and The Economic Times.)