Indian Navy can be India’s silver bullet for a secure Indo-Pacific

By Cmde Ranjit B Rai (Retd)

New Delhi. 04 December 2023. Navy Day is celebrated annually on 4th December commemorating the three Osa Class Missile boats’ attack off Karachi in Op Trident with the sinking of three Pakistan Navy ships on that day in the 1971 war to liberate of ‘sonar’ Bangladesh from East Pakistan for the Bengalis. PNS Ghazi was sunk off Vishakhapatnam on day one of the war; the US Navy Task Force TF 74 led by USS Enterprise was warded off in the Bay of Bengal; and INS Vikrant played a stellar role with its Seahawk and Breguet Alize aircraft. The Eastern Fleet, the Army the Mukti Bahini and the Indian Air Force jointly liberated the new nation, in that Tri-Service war. Sadly INS ASW ship INS Khukri went down to a torpedo attack by submarine PNS Daphne with 176 souls off Diu with Capt MN Mulla MVC.

This year Navy Day was remarkably special for the Navy’s achievements as in 1971 to prepare for te 1971 war, with an increase in the firepower of the inventory of surface ships including INS Vikrant with Mig-29Ks and LCAs, three type 15Bs in the fleets, upgraded type 15s INS Delhi and Mysore seen with angled Brahmos and SAMs. This has offered the navy transformational and technological advances in electronics and the use of space for data and communications with links, eg by GSAT-7 which will be replaced by another. CENTRIX is used for Ex Malabars since inception. Some advances were displayed and some were discussed at the second naval Svalambham Convention 2023 in Delhi. It showed Indian advances in Drone technology and improvements in the Navy’s weapons, indigenous sonars, EW equipment and radars on ships and equipment on submarines. Scanter has become standard navigation and weapon directions radar replacing the Russian Garpun Bal. Indira of Spain and Tatas will provide air radars.

Improvements have also been made in various naval aircraft, ASW Seakings 41B have been converted to MK 42C commando roles by the Naval staff at Cochin. The twelve P8I MR from INS Hansa Goa and Arokam and INS Dega have set a record on hours of operations with women power manning billets in the Asia Pacific, as have the two MQ-29 General Atomics drones supporting the other services. The navy and services are awaiting the arrival of Predators. A few of the twenty-six newly minted powerful Seahawk MH-60R helicopters with MK 48 torpedoes ordered from USA are being worked up and will be joining fleet ships. Konsberg naval missiles may follow. CNS Admiral Hari Kumar in his press conference stated a woman officer(Free Press reports Lt Cdr Prerana Deostali will command the in-shore craft INS Trinkat and overall explained last two years were remarkable for Navy’s expansion, role and budget of around Rs 50000 cr with 46% increase in revenue. The improvement shows.

This year Navy has made a record in the Indo-Pacific and few worldwide deployments of around 9,400 ship day hours and exercised with over ten large navies and twenty smaller navies and increased cooperation in SAGAR—for island states around India. With the commissioning of five Scorpenes from Mazagon Docks Ltd (MDL) the older Navy Submarines also of the Navy called at ports in the Indian Ocean. The Navy inducted twelve new platforms, and the Navy reports 67 ships are on order for building in Indian yards and only two Krivacks abroad by Yantar in Russia as two progress for building at Goa Shipyard. Training ships, 16 shallow water ASW ships and survey ships have been ordered with L&T and PSU yards in collaboration.

India’s Navy celebrated Navy Day on 4th December evening in keeping with PM Narendra’s policy to celebrate Armed Forces days at different locations and Navy Day saw an impressive Display of Naval Operations at sea offshore and onshore on 4th Dec at SINDHUDURG. This included display by Marcos and skydivers being dropped from 8000 feet above the fort of Sindhudurg with a powerful scintillating display of the Navy’s weaponry and prowess with forty ships and aircraft after PM Narendra Modi unveiled a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji at Sindhudurg’s Rajkot fort.

The maritime nations will analyse, as the Indian Navy has had a momentous rise in its inventory of ships with a record commissioning of platforms and submarines, some earlier than scheduled. The crest of Yard 12706 to be INS Imphal, the third amongst the four around 7,000 ton Project 15B guided missile stealth destroyers at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL) was unveiled on 28 Nov 23, in the presence of the Defence minister, Chief Minister of Manipur, and senior officials from the Ministry of Defence and State of Manipur. It needs noting as part of its pre-commissioning trials, the ship has carried out the successful firing of an Extended Range BrahMos missile (Normal range 300 km)– making it a milestone for for the ship’s capability.

On Navy day India can be proud of its latest Type 15B technologically advanced destroyers equipped designed by the Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau (WDB) and built by MDSL. It is the hallmark of indigenous large war shipbuilding. With its Anti-Missile MF-Star radar, LR SAM including MR SAM, BrahMos SSM, Indigenous Torpedo Tube Launchers, Anti-Submarine Indigenous Rocket Launchers, and 76 mm SRGM it compares with its contemporaries. Imphal will be commissioned into the Indian Navy and soon sonar-equipped MH-60R Romeo with weaponry to will join. the ship boasts a high indigenous content of approximately 75%,.

The challenge that China’s PLA has begun studying most in recent times is IN’s maritime rise, especially at a time USA has increased its strength in the East. After 2020 the closeness of India with USA enabled India’s military led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demonstrate it could defend its land borders and the three services were seen to be cooperating to hold China back. In the backdrop of advances in the last few years the Governments of the United States of America and India have stepped up continuing advances in equipment supplies, and interoperability in naval exercises like Malabar are setting up new liaison positions to facilitate seamless communication and cooperation between their navies and armed forces and has made India’s full membership of the multinational Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), headquartered in Bahrain. The shared benefits of the Logistics and Exchange Memorandum Agreement (LEMOA), and such are to identify reciprocal steps both countries can take to enhance the reach of their respective militaries.

The fifth Annual U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in 2023 made it clear there was full convergence on the two nations co-opeatiom for for Indo-Pacific. The Ministers of Defence Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar welcomed Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and noted the substantial progress in transforming U.S.-India relations across domains, based on trust and mutual understanding. Building upon the June 2023 and September 2023 visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joseph Biden, the Ministers reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership in ensuring international peace and security. The Ministers also underlined their strong commitment to safeguarding a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific through mechanisms like the Quad and navies have conducted advanced multi-nation exercises with the Indian Navy.

Both leaders of India and USA and others have reaffirmed the importance of a free, open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific and renewed their shared desire to consolidate their dialogue and collaboration through the Quad. They emphasized the important role of the Quad as a force for global good for the peoples of the Indo-Pacific.A stronger Indian Navy can be India’s silver bullet for a secure Indo-Pacific.