(GEO MILITARY AFFAIRS) –In a clear signal of enduring Indo-Russian defence cooperation despite global geopolitical headwinds, ROSOBORONEXPORT JSC — a core subsidiary of Rostec State Corporation — has officially handed over another advanced Project 11356 frigate to the Indian Navy.
The commissioning ceremony for the newly minted frigate, christened INS Tamal, was held on 1 July 2025 at the strategic Russian port city of Kaliningrad, underscoring Moscow’s commitment to honour major naval shipbuilding contracts in the face of Western sanctions and shifting global supply chains.
The INS Tamal, the eighth vessel in India’s Project 11356 line, carries a name that resonates deeply with India’s maritime warrior tradition — ‘Tamal’ translates to ‘Sword’ in Sanskrit — a fitting symbol for a warship designed to project power and safeguard sea lanes from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea.
Project 11356 frigate was built by United Shipbuilding Corporation.
“The successful completion of construction, testing and delivery of the frigate Tamal to India demonstrates ROSOBORONEXPORT’s readiness to effectively fulfil any naval contracts, taking into account current global market trends,” said Alexander Mikheev, Director General of ROSOBORONEXPORT JSC.
“The eighth Project 11356 frigate is a model of technology cooperation. It incorporates more than 20 Indian-made ship systems, including the BrahMos supersonic missile system, an automated communications system, a surface search and target acquisition radar, and a sonar station.”
“Today the Company is actively developing partnerships with Indian public and private enterprises to jointly develop and manufacture military products on the partner’s territory. We are discussing 50+ projects for all services of the armed forces and are already working on a number of them.”
This milestone handover comes at a time when New Delhi is intensifying its naval modernisation efforts to counter rising threats from the Indo-Pacific’s crowded maritime domain, especially amid Beijing’s growing naval assertiveness and Pakistan’s expanding surface fleet.
The Project 11356 class, known for its robust multi-role capabilities, has long served as a backbone for India’s blue-water ambitions.
The INS Tamal embodies the latest refinements in this series, offering the Indian Navy a potent platform that integrates proven Russian shipbuilding expertise with indigenous Indian defence technologies.
One of Tamal’s standout features is its state-of-the-art radar suite, designed to detect and track multiple types of aerial threats, including advanced low-flying anti-ship missiles that are proliferating in the region.
In a theatre where hypersonic and low-RCS missile technologies are rapidly reshaping naval warfare, such sensors provide the early warning edge essential for fleet survivability.
For air defence, Tamal comes equipped with the Shtil-1 vertical-launch surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, developed by Almaz-Antey, a critical capability that enables the ship to neutralise aerial threats in complex littoral and open-ocean environments.
Naval analysts note that the Shtil-1’s layered engagement envelope makes it particularly suited for protecting carrier battle groups and amphibious task forces against saturation attacks by UAVs and cruise missiles — threats increasingly tested by regional powers like China and Iran.
Beyond its missile shield, Tamal’s deck armament includes a 100mm main gun complemented by 30mm close-in weapon systems, providing both precision strike options and robust last-ditch defence against swarming drone or unmanned surface vehicle (USV) incursions.
In an era of evolving drone warfare, such defensive redundancy is becoming indispensable for navies operating within contested maritime chokepoints such as the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands.
Significantly, Tamal’s ability to deploy a Ka-31 airborne early warning helicopter enhances its surveillance footprint, extending its detection horizon to hundreds of kilometres and integrating seamlessly with India’s broader network-centric maritime domain awareness grid.
The frigate’s endurance also reflects its expeditionary role — with an operational range exceeding 4,850 nautical miles (approximately 9,000 km) and an impressive 30-day mission duration without resupply, Tamal is built for long-duration deployments that will likely see it escort carrier groups or conduct independent patrols in far-flung waters.
This fresh delivery raises the Indian Navy’s operational Project 11356 fleet strength to eight, solidifying a key component of its surface fleet strategy.
The previous vessel in the line, INS Tushil, was delivered in December 2024, while India’s indigenous shipbuilder, Goa Shipyard Limited, has already launched the ninth and tenth Project 11356 frigates under a technology transfer framework backed by ROSOBORONEXPORT.
This arrangement highlights Russia’s enduring appeal as a defence partner willing to localise production — an edge over Western competitors constrained by export controls and end-user restrictions.
From Moscow’s perspective, the Tamal’s commissioning is more than just another export milestone.
It reinforces Russia’s strategic foothold in one of the world’s largest arms markets, even as India diversifies procurement with platforms from the United States, France, and Israel.
Defence trade data shows that India remains one of ROSOBORONEXPORT’s top naval customers, with current and planned contracts estimated to be worth well over USD 4 billion (RM18.8 billion) when factoring in ongoing technology cooperation and sustainment packages.
“We aim to strengthen the Russian defence industry’s position in India through unique technology cooperation proposals that none of our competitors can match today,” Mikheev added.
“Issues related to the continuation of ongoing projects in the field of joint development and production of naval equipment, aircraft, armored vehicles, small arms, and ammunition are being actively considered, and new ones are also being discussed.”
This statement gains extra weight when viewed against the backdrop of New Delhi’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (Self-Reliant India) push — an industrial strategy driving co-production, local manufacturing, and technology transfer as non-negotiable clauses in any major defence contract.
Such co-development deals align neatly with India’s ambition to strengthen its domestic defence base while hedging against single-source dependencies, especially as global supply chains grow more fragmented in a post-Ukraine sanctions environment.
Experts say the Project 11356 programme — with its hybrid of Russian design and Indian systems integration — has become a textbook example of how geopolitical interests and indigenous industrial goals can intersect, even as New Delhi continues to build partnerships with Western shipbuilders for next-generation destroyers and corvettes.
Looking ahead, the strategic implications of the Tamal’s induction stretch far beyond the Indian Ocean.
As maritime flashpoints intensify from the Taiwan Strait to the Persian Gulf, India’s ability to project credible sea power will hinge on flexible, multi-role platforms like the Project 11356 frigate — vessels equally adept at escort missions, anti-submarine warfare, area air defence, and countering asymmetric drone swarms.
In the words of a senior naval analyst in New Delhi, “The Tamal is more than just another hull; it’s a reminder that in the Indo-Pacific’s new era of multi-domain maritime threats, operational readiness will rest on well-balanced fleets that blend endurance, indigenous systems, and credible punch.”
With over USD 4 billion (RM18.8 billion) of future Indo-Russian naval projects under discussion, and more Indian-built frigates waiting in the wings, the Project 11356 class remains a potent symbol of India’s bid to sustain maritime dominance — and Russia’s enduring role in that unfolding story.
— GEO MILITARY AFFAIRS