INS Sandhayak

INS Sandhayak (J18) (Hindi: संधायक lit. coordinator) was the lead ship of the Sandhayak class of survey ships. The ship operates as a hydrographic survey ship in the Indian Navy, under the Eastern Naval Command. Apart from a helicopter and Bofors 40 mm gun for self defence, the ship is also equipped with four survey motor boats, two small boats. The ship can also analyse the level of pollution, sea level at various places, sea bed and marine wealth. Sandhayak is capable of conducting shallow coastal and deep oceanic hydrographic survey and collect oceanographic and geophysical data. The ship was decommissioned on 4 June 2021 after 40 years in service.