Indian Navy Commissions Survey Vessel 'Ikshak' to Enhance Hydrographic Operations

The Indian Navy has officially commissioned the indigenously built survey vessel INS Ikshak (Yard 3025), marking a significant milestone in India’s naval shipbuilding capabilities. Designed for advanced hydrographic surveys and maritime reconnaissance, Ikshak is the third ship in a series of four under the Sandhayak-class Survey Vessels (Large) program. The vessel was commissioned at Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam on June 25, 2024.

Strategic Role of Survey Vessels in Naval Operations

Survey vessels like INS Ikshak play a critical role in ensuring safe navigation and maritime domain awareness by conducting hydrographic surveys of ports, harbors, coastal areas, and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). These platforms are essential for updating nautical charts and supporting both civilian shipping and military operations.

In addition to their primary role in charting seabeds and underwater terrain features using multi-beam echo sounders and side-scan sonars, modern survey vessels also support secondary missions such as search-and-rescue (SAR), limited humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HADR), mine countermeasure support planning, and underwater object detection. Their data feeds directly into C4ISR systems that underpin naval situational awareness.

INS Ikshak: Design Features and Technical Specifications

INS Ikshak is based on a design developed by the Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau (WDB) and constructed by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE), Kolkata in collaboration with Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Shipbuilding at Kattupalli. The vessel was launched on November 26, 2022.

Displacement: Approximately 3,400 tonnes
Length: Around 110 meters
Beam: Approximately 16 meters
Cruising Speed: ~16 knots
Crew Complement: About 231 personnel including officers
Sensors: Multi-beam echo sounders (MBES), side-scan sonars (SSS), sub-bottom profilers
C4I Suite: Integrated bridge system with advanced navigation and communication systems
Aviation Facilities: Capable of operating one light helicopter or UAV for extended survey operations
Missions: Hydrographic surveys up to depths of ~500m+, limited SAR/HADR support

The ship is equipped with indigenous technologies including hull-mounted sonar arrays for bathymetric mapping. It also features advanced data acquisition systems that allow real-time processing onboard for rapid dissemination to naval command centers.

The Sandhayak-Class Program: Indigenous Push Under Make in India

The commissioning of INS Ikshak follows earlier inductions of INS Sandhayak (commissioned December 2023) and INS Nirdeshak into the Indian Navy’s hydrography fleet. All four ships under this class are being built under a ₹2435 crore (~$300 million) contract awarded to GRSE in October 2018 as part of India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative aimed at boosting indigenous defense manufacturing.

The program represents a significant leap from earlier-generation survey vessels by incorporating modular construction techniques—L&T fabricated key hull blocks while final integration was done at GRSE’s facilities. This hybrid build strategy accelerated timelines while leveraging private sector expertise.

The Sandhayak-class replaces aging platforms such as the original INS Sandhayak (decommissioned mid-2021 after over four decades of service). The new class offers significantly enhanced endurance (~6,000 nautical miles), automation levels, digital hydrographic processing capabilities via onboard labs, and integration into network-centric warfare environments.

Civil-Military Applications: Maritime Security Through Data Superiority

The strategic utility of survey ships like Ikshak extends beyond military applications. With growing emphasis on Blue Economy initiatives—including offshore energy exploration, undersea cable routing security, port development planning—hydrographic data has become dual-use infrastructure.

The Indian Naval Hydrographic Department (INHD) collaborates with regional navies through bilateral arrangements for joint surveys across the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Ships like Ikshak will be instrumental in supporting these missions through interoperability standards compliant with International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) norms.

This capability also supports India’s SAGAR doctrine (“Security And Growth for All in the Region”) by enabling regional capacity building via hydrography training missions to friendly nations such as Sri Lanka, Maldives or Mauritius—where IN ships have previously conducted joint surveys or provided charting assistance.

A Boost to India’s Maritime Domain Awareness Architecture

The induction of Ikshak strengthens India’s layered maritime domain awareness architecture which includes coastal radar chains, satellite-based AIS monitoring systems like NC3I Network integration (National Command Control Communication Intelligence), and seabed mapping assets. Accurate bathymetric data enhances submarine navigation safety as well as anti-submarine warfare planning through better understanding of acoustic propagation environments.

This capability becomes particularly relevant amid increasing Chinese PLAN activity near critical sea lanes around Andaman & Nicobar Islands or Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port zone. Having updated seabed maps enables better deployment planning for underwater sensors or mobile ASW assets like P-8I aircraft or Kalvari-class submarines.

Outlook: Future Survey Platforms & Technological Upgrades

The Indian Navy is expected to continue expanding its hydrography fleet with unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) being explored for shallow water mapping tasks where manned platforms face access limitations due to draft constraints or navigational hazards. Integration with AI-enabled post-processing tools will further compress decision timelines from days to hours post-survey completion.

The commissioning of INS Ikshak marks not just an asset addition but signals an institutional commitment toward information dominance at sea—a domain increasingly contested not just militarily but commercially through subsea infrastructure competition across Indo-Pacific chokepoints.