Indian Navy inducts INS Nistar as first indigenous diving support vessel

July 21, 2025, by Aida Čučuk

INS Nistar, the first indigenously designed and constructed diving support vessel (DSV), has been commissioned into the Indian Navy.

The ship, which is the first of the two diving support vessels being built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited, entered service at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam on July 18, 2025.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, stated: “Nistar will provide critical submarine rescue support to the Indian Navy as well as our regional partners. This will enable India to emerge as a ‘Preferred Submarine Rescue Partner’ in this region. The commissioning of Nistar is testimony to the growing capability and maturity of our maritime industrial base…”

To note, INS Nistar is 20 meters long and has a displacement of more than 10,000 tons.

As informed, it is installed with diving equipment such as remotely operated vehicles, a self-propelled hyperbaric lifeboat, and diving compression chambers. Reportedly, it is designed to undertake diving and salvage operations up to 300 meters depth.

It is understood that the ship is expected to also serve as the “mother ship” for a deep submergence rescue vessel to rescue and evacuate personnel from a dived submarine in distress well below the surface.