Coast Guard expansion: the FY2025-26 budget, the 2030 fleet target, and the permanent-commission case

The money: FY2025-26 allocation and the capital push

For 2025-26 the Indian Coast Guard was allocated about Rs 9,676.7 crore across the Capital and Revenue heads. Within that, the Capital budget was raised roughly 43% — from about Rs 3,500 crore in 2024-25 to Rs 5,000 crore in 2025-26 — described by the government as creating financial space to acquire Advanced Light Helicopters, Dornier aircraft, fast patrol vessels, training ships and interceptor boats; the Revenue head made up the balance, about Rs 4,676.7 crore (The Statesman). The allocation sits inside a record Ministry of Defence Union Budget of over Rs 6.81 lakh crore for 2025-26, an increase of 9.53% over the previous year (PIB).

These figures are drawn from budget documents and Coast Guard Raising Day statements; the Capital and Revenue splits above are the components the service itself disclosed. Where cumulative or force-strength numbers vary between sources, this brief attributes each to its origin rather than reconciling them.

The fleet: current strength, orders and indigenisation

At its 2025 Raising Day the Coast Guard reported a fleet of roughly 150 ships and about 76 aircraft, with 55 to 60 surface platforms and 10 to 12 aircraft deployed on patrol on a typical day, across an Indian Search and Rescue Region of about 4.6 million square kilometres (Sentinel). The service has stated a target force level of 200 surface platforms and 100 aircraft by 2030, and said it had placed orders for scores of platforms already under construction in Indian shipyards, with further contracts being processed (Sentinel, as above). These are the Coast Guard’s own stated targets and order figures, not an external projection.

The expansion is being executed largely through domestic yards under the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India programmes. In 2025-26 Goa Shipyard Limited launched and delivered successive vessels in a series of eight indigenous fast patrol vessels, and on 27 June 2026 the Coast Guard commissioned ICGS Akshay — the fourth Adamya-class fast patrol vessel, with more than 65% indigenous content (ANI). Later vessels in the same series, ICG Ships Ajit and Aparajit, were launched on 24 October 2025 as the seventh and eighth of the run (DD News / Ministry of Defence). The Coast Guard has also reported cumulative operational results — over 11,730 lives saved since inception and contraband worth about Rs 52,560 crore seized over its history, including a single narcotics seizure of about 6,016 kg in the Andaman Sea (Sentinel, as above).

The contested thread: women officers and permanent commission

Alongside the enforcement and fleet story runs a live dispute over service conditions. In February 2024 the Supreme Court, hearing a petition by a woman Short Service Appointment officer, told the Union that arguments of “functional difference” in the Coast Guard could not justify denying women officers permanent commission in 2024, noting that the Army and Navy had already extended it, and indicated it would order the change if the government did not (LiveLaw; Business Standard). The Union’s position, as argued before the court, was that the Coast Guard’s structure differed from the other services; the petitioner’s position, upheld in the court’s remarks, was that women could not be categorically excluded. This brief characterises the positions as stated by each side and does not adjudicate between them.

Who owns this topic (and why we’re here)

The Indian Coast Guard is the seat of power for this topic; its statutory basis, command structure and timeline are set out in the Indian Coast Guard dossier. Around it, the Indian Navy holds overall maritime security, the Ministry of Defence holds the budget and acquisition decisions, and the Ministry of Home Affairs holds the state coastal-police layer. IndiaStand maintains this brief because the money, the indigenous fleet build-out and the permanent-commission dispute are where the service’s direction is currently being decided, and because those are the parts of the picture that change between cycles. We track the institution, not its officeholders.

Maintained topic brief. Analysis by IndiaStand — it characterises the state of play and the range of positions actually held, attributes each claim, and makes no forecast and no recommendation.