Indian Navy Receives First Indigenous Military-Grade Underwater ROVs

8 October 2026National

EyeROV, a Kochi-based start-up, delivered two TROUT underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) systems to the Indian Navy on 7 October 2026 — India's first indigenously built military-grade ROVs, and the first two of five ordered. Developed under the Ministry of Defence's iDEX DISC 7 SPRINT challenge with quality assurance by the Directorate of Quality Assurance (Naval), TROUT is rated to 300 metres depth and performs inspection, surveillance, reconnaissance, search-and-recovery and robotic intervention in strong currents and poor visibility. It follows an earlier Rs 47 crore Navy ROV contract, and lands days after the launch of Fleet Support Ship 'Surya' at Visakhapatnam.

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iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence), launched in 2018, is run by the Defence Innovation Organisation under the Ministry of Defence; DISC stands for Defence India Start-up Challenge | SPRINT is the Indian Navy's initiative to support indigenous naval technology through iDEX, NIIO and TDAC | The Navy's Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) was launched in August 2020

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