INS Kamorta (P28), one of the four Kamorta-class stealth corvettes currently serving in the Indian Navy.

The Indian Navy plans to acquire seven new-generation guided missile corvettes at a cost of $2 billion to replace its Russian-built 1241-RE missile boats, allowing only domestic companies to bid under the government's "Make in India" rules.

While the ships themselves must be constructed at an Indian shipyard, some major systems of the boats, particularly the weaponry, will be imported, an Indian Navy official said.

The Indian sea service wants the new corvettes to have longer range than the old boats, capable of offensive nuclear submarines attack, anti-submarine warfare, local naval defense, maritime interdiction operations, and visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) operations, according to the request for proposals sent to Indian industry.

The formal tender for the new generation corvettes will be given to domestic shipyards next year and is likely to be sent to state-owned Mazagon Docks Ltd., Garden Research Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (GRSE), Hindustan Shipyard Ltd. and Cochin Shipyard Ltd. Private-sector companies considered in the running are Reliance Defence and Engineering Ltd (RDEL) - formerly known as Pipavav Defence - as well as Offshore Engineering and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Ltd., according to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) official.

The long-term prospective plan for 2017-32, unveiled early this year, calls for acquiring a range of futuristic technologies. These include naval missiles and guns, propulsion and power generation, surveillance and detection systems, futuristic torpedoes and directed-energy weapons, submarines and anti-submarine warfare, naval aviation, network-centric warfare equipment and combat management systems.