How 200+ Indian MSMEs quietly powered Project 17A’s stealth frigates Udaygiri and Himgiri

How did more than 200 Indian MSMEs become the invisible backbone of Project 17A’s stealth frigates—creating thousands of jobs while proving that Make in India can scale across multiple shipyards without breaking timelines?

In a rare, high-throughput moment for Indian defence manufacturing, the Indian Navy will commission two Project 17A stealth frigates—Udaygiri (F35) from Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) and Himgiri (F34) from Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE)—together on August 26 in Visakhapatnam. Behind the ceremony sits a vendor network of more than 200 micro, small and medium enterprises, which supported roughly 4,000 direct jobs and over 10,000 indirect jobs through the build and delivery phase. That scale of MSME participation is now central to how India intends to deliver complex platforms on parallel tracks at two different shipyards.

The Navy’s Warship Design Bureau designed both vessels, with Udaygiri marking its 100th design milestone—a signal that the intellectual property stack is domestic, even as select subsystems integrate international technologies. The output of that IP is visible in the industrial choreography: hull blocks fabricated in separate bays, precision machining of shaft lines and controllable-pitch propellers, and integration of Combined Diesel or Gas (CODOG) propulsion with an Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS). Each step fanned out into dozens of MSME work orders for castings, forgings, switchboards, cabling, HVAC, paints and coatings, radar-absorbent structures, fire-safety gear, and software services. As deliveries converged, sea trials validated hull and machinery performance, firefighting and damage control systems, and navigation and communications—providing an end-to-end quality gate for the supply chain that fed into the final acceptance.

What does India’s multi-yard delivery of Udaygiri and Himgiri reveal about local supply chains—are they now resilient enough to compress induction cycles and meet rising naval demand without quality trade-offs?

The simultaneous commissioning from two different yards suggests that supplier depth is no longer a single-yard advantage but a system-wide capability. Vendors that once serviced only one public sector shipyard are increasingly cross-qualified, enabling identical standards for cable harnessing, valve assemblies, shock-graded switchgear, and maritime coatings across MDL and GRSE lines. Himgiri’s delivery came on schedule and within a broader ₹21,833 crore tranche for three GRSE-led ships, a capital pulse that has flowed through MSMEs, start-ups, and OEMs—spreading risk, growing balance sheets, and giving vendors the confidence to invest in new tooling.

That matters because modular construction only works if upstream suppliers hold tolerances across blocks built in parallel; the P17A experience shows India’s MSMEs can meet those tolerances repeatedly. As a capability story, this is bigger than one class of frigates. It points to a template that could be reused for future projects—where time to induction hinges less on one yard’s critical path and more on networked capacity across two or more yards using shared standards, common digital models, and interchangeable vendor lots.

How are jobs and regional clusters evolving around Project 17A—can the same MSMEs now pivot to exports, lifecycle support, and next-gen programmes without losing momentum after commissioning day?

Employment linked to P17A has been widely reported at roughly 4,000 direct and more than 10,000 indirect jobs, but the more durable story is capability. MSMEs that mastered shock-proof electricals, marine-grade composites, power-management software, and submarine-quietening disciplines now have transferable skills for refits, mid-life upgrades, and potential export configurations.

Clusters in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, and the Kolkata–Howrah belt have developed a bench of welders, non-destructive testing technicians, marine electricians, and PLC programmers who can rotate across naval and commercial orders in down-cycles. That labour flexibility is vital if India is to hit higher annual launch rates without whiplash when schedules shift. P17A’s vendor footprint is a proof-point that Make in India is not just about final assembly; it is about building a resilient, multi-city, multi-tier ecosystem that can carry the programme from keel-laying to obsolescence management.

How the dual commissioning of Udaygiri and Himgiri could shape institutional confidence and future growth in India’s naval shipbuilding industry

Equity sentiment around India’s listed naval primes reflects elevated expectations but also the reality of a crowded trade. As of mid-August 2025, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders’ shares hovered around ₹2,690 with a 52-week range of ₹1,918–₹3,778, while Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers traded near ₹2,510; both have seen brisk volumes into August and short-term volatility as traders positioned ahead of order-book updates and the commissioning event.

Markets appear to be pricing steady execution on P17A and optionality from exports and follow-on surface-combatant programmes, while watching working-capital discipline and capacity additions closely. For long-term investors, the medium-term narrative remains anchored in visibility of defence capex, throughput gains from modular construction, and the durability of the MSME vendor base built during P17A.

What defence analysts say about India’s shipbuilding trajectory

Defence industry experts note that building two major warships concurrently at separate shipyards without delays is a rare feat globally. The P17A programme demonstrates how Indian shipyards can adopt modular construction, digital design tools, and networked supply chains to compress build times while maintaining quality.

Naval strategists also stress that such capabilities are crucial if India is to meet its long-term maritime force-level goals, which include a 200-ship Navy by the mid-2030s. The commissioning of Udaygiri and Himgiri is therefore seen not just as an operational gain, but as a validation of India’s strategic industrial capacity.

What should policymakers and shipyards do next to lock in the MSME gains and avoid a post-commissioning slump in orders and skills?

The P17A vendor story is a strategic asset. To keep it from dissipating, India should convert the commissioning moment into a multi-year vendor-capacity plan. Three steps stand out. First, publish rolling, class-agnostic standards for digital ship models and quality gates so MSMEs can pre-qualify across programmes and shipyards. Second, expand vendor financing through targeted guarantees tied to on-time, on-quality performance, reducing the cost of capital for machinery upgrades. Third, institutionalise cross-yard vendor pools with shared audits and skill-portability credentials so labour can move quickly to the next hull without retraining delays.

If policymakers and shipyards lock these in while the order books are full, the same 200-plus MSMEs that powered Udaygiri and Himgiri can scale into a true maritime industrial base—one that sustains exports, lifecycle support, and the next wave of surface-combatant designs.