Revision as of 22:52, 13 November 2016

The Indian and China Navy: A comparison; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, June 3, 2016

Destroyers

INS Mormugao

INS Mormugao before its launch

The Times of India 15 Sep, 2016

The Navy's new destroyer Mormugao: 10 facts

Mormugao, the Navy's newest stealth destroyer, will be launched at the week-end in Mumbai. The vessel was built by Maximum City's Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders - India's foremost shipyard - which has already delivered six major warship to the Indian Navy since 2010.

Here are ten key facts about INS Mormugao.

1. Mormugao is the second of Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders' 15B Class Navy stealth destroyers. Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba will launch the new vessel in Mumbai on Saturday.

2.Named after a Goan city

Murmugao weighs 7,300 tonnes, and is named after the Goan port of Mormugao.

3. 'Indigenized' ship

More than 60% of the ship will be built in India. In other words, it will highly 'indigenized.' The Navy plans to increase the degree of 'indigenization' in its 15B ships to 68%.

4.A guided-missile destroyer

Mormugao is a guided-missile destoyer, a kind of warship that can launch missiles whose trajectories can be modified during flight to attack mobile targets. It will also be stealthier than its predecessor in the 15B series of destroyers.

5."More teeth" for the Navy

Mormugao has Barak-8 long-range missiles, which have been jointly developed by Israel and India. For Vice Admiral G S Pabby, the new vessel adds "more teeth" to the Navy.

6.One Mazagon ship every year since 2010

Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders has been suppying the Navy with warships at the rate of one a year since 2010. INS vessels Shivalik, Satpura, Sahyadri, Kolkata, Kochi and Chennai have all been delivered.

7.INS Vishakapatnam

The first ship in the 15B class - INS Vishakapatnam - which was lauched in April last year. It is expected to be commissioned by the Navy in 2018

8.Mormugao one of four 15B ships sanctioned

The Manmohan Singh-led UPA government had in 2011 had sanctioned four 15 B ships, and had earmarked Rs 29,700 crores for the project.

9.Vizag, Mormugao, and next, Paradip

The next ship in the 'Vishakapatnam' series is Paradip, the name of a coastal Gujarati city.

10.A stepping stone in an ambitious project

Vice Admiral G S Pabby said the launch of Mormugao was only a 'stepping stone' to even more shipbuilding. The Navy, he explained, has set itself the 'challenging' target of increasing its fleet size to 212 by 2027.

The state of the Navy

The Western Air Command

2011-15: Forcing Gulf of Aden pirates out

The Times of India Dec 22 2015

The Western Naval Command’s anti-piracy operations, 2011-15; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India Dec 22 2015

V Narayan

Mumbai

The Western Naval Command (WNC), which controls anti-piracy operations from the city , says it has achieved a major success in combating the menace.

The Navy announced that intensive patrolling in Gulf of Aden and off the Somalia coast has led to pirates shifting bases.

The two locations are important sea lanes for trade. Currently , INS Trishul, extensively patrols the seas at these locations and is the pivot of the anti-piracy missions.

On December 3, aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya along with several other wars hips took part in patrolling Gulf of Aden and the Somalia coast. Last year, there were four attacks by pirates in Gulf of Aden and three off Somalia coast. The Navy has so far escorted 3,000 merchant vessels to safety and foiled piracy attacks on 46 ships at other locations. A report by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) showed a decrease in piracy cases reported across the world.

While 245 cases took place last year, the figure for 2015 is 223. The IMB, which is based in the United Kingdom, said a crackdown by the Navy has reduced serious attacks in Southeast Asia. A day prior to the Navy Day celebrations, the WNC Vice Admiral SPS Cheema said the economy is directly linked to the growth in commerce and most of India's voluminous trade is carried out using the sea route for import and export.

“The Middle East remains a key source of the country's crude oil imports. The Navy ensures that the trade via the sea is safe at all times thereby guaranteeing unhindered growth of our economy,“ said Cheema. The pirates have been kept on their toes since 2011 when the Navy and the Coast Guard officials caught 120 of them from Somalia in three different attacks. Given India's location, the Navy is required to continuously monitor eight major shipping lanes, with a large number of foreign warships being present round the clock. More than one lakh ships pass through the waters along India's coast annually .

Tupolev-142 M aircraft

The Times of India, Nov 18, 2013

Rajat Pandit

India's maritime hawk completed 25 years of yeomen service in 2013

The world’s largest and fastest turboprop aircraft, aptly named the "Albatross" or the "Mighty Bird", the TU-142M planes first joined the INAS 312 maritime reconnaissance squadron from Russia in 1988.

Quietly keeping a hawk-eye on hostile warships, submarines, pirates and other inimical forces in the wide Indian Ocean Region (IOR), the Tupolev-142M aircraft have now clocked 25 years of operations in the Navy without a single accident.

The world's largest and fastest turboprop aircraft, aptly named the "Albatross" or the "Mighty Bird", the TU-142M planes first joined the INAS 312 maritime reconnaissance squadron from Russia in 1988.

The TU-142M's silver jubilee was celebrated at naval air station INS Rajali in Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu, with Eastern Naval Command chief Vice admiral Anil Chopra reviewing the flypast and parad.

Though the seven fuel-guzzling TU-142M aircraft in the squadron have clearly aged, the Navy says they are still "effective force-multipliers" that are always in the "forefront" of all maritime operations.

"TU-142Ms were the first true LRMR (long-range, maritime reconnaissance) patrol aircraft of the Navy. They have performed yeomen service over the years. Having undergone overhauls and life-extensions in Russia, we plan to keep them in service till at least 2018," said an officer.

With a 50-metre wing-span and a range of over 12,000 km, the TU-142M has a speed of around 850 kmph. "They also have the highest flying altitude among turboprops, with an operational ceiling of over 13,000 metre," he said.

Apart from snooping, the TU-142Ms also have potent anti-submarine and electronic warfare capabilities. "They have a 10-member crew, fitted as they are with lot of sensors. They can also carry at least five torpedoes as well as freefall bombs and depth charges," he said.

The TU-142Ms will gradually be replaced by the dozen P-8I aircraft India is buying from the US for around $3.5 billion. Under the first $2.1 billion contract inked with Boeing in January 2009, the second of the eight contracted P-8I touched down at INS Rajali earlier this month. "All eight will be delivered by 2015," said another officer.

Armed with deadly Harpoon Block-II missiles, MK-54 lightweight torpedoes, rockets and depth charges, the radar-packed P-8I aircraft will be India's "intelligent hawk-eyes" over the IOR that is increasingly getting militarized.

China in particular has stepped up its submarine activity in the IOR as well as systematically forged extensive maritime linkages with eastern Africa, Seychelles, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan, among others.

With a maximum speed of 907 kmph and an operating range of over 1,200 nautical miles, "with four hours on station", the P-8Is will be able to detect "threats" — and neutralize them if required — far before they come anywhere near Indian shores.

Much like the TU-142Ms, the P-8Is will work in conjunction with medium-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft and Israeli Searcher-II and Heron UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to establish an effective three-tier surveillance grid in IOR.

Apart from the need to take care of its primary area of strategic interest stretching from Persian Gulf to Malacca Strait, India also has a vast 5,422-km coastline, 1,197 islands and 2.01 million sq km of Exclusive Economic Zone to guard against all threats. "The P-8Is will help in this," said the officer.

As in 2016

See graphic

The Indian Navy, strength in Nov 2016 and plans
The Times of India

Andaman & Nicobar Command

2016: Submarine hunterskillers deployed

The Times of India, Jan 19 2016

Andaman & Nicobar: India’s farthest military outpost, 2016; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Jan 19 2016

Rajat Pandit

To fight China A&N forays, India deploys sub hunters  With Chinese nuclear and conventional submarines regularly popping up in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), India has now begun to deploy its latest long-range maritime patrol aircraft as well as spy drones at its forward military base in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Defence ministry sources on Monday said two of the country's most potent submarine hunterskillers, the naval Poseidon-8I aircraft, are just about to complete their first-ever two-week deployment to the strategically-located A&N archipelago. “Navy and IAF are also deploying their (Israeli) Searcher-II unmanned aerial vehicles to the islands on a temporary basis,“ said a source.

India has inducted eight P-8I aircraft, acquired under a $2.1 billion deal inked in January 2009 with US aviation major Boeing, at its INS Rajali naval air station in Arakkonam (Tamil Nadu). With an operating range of over 1,200 nautical miles and a maximum speed of 907 kmph, the radarpacked P-8Is are especially geared to gather intelligence and detect threats in the IOR as “intelligent hawk-eyes“.

Armed as they are with deadly Harpoon Block-II missiles, MK-54 lightweight torpedoes, rockets and depth charges, the P-8Is can neutralise enemy submarines and warships if required. “Acquisition of another four P-8Is is in the final stages. P-8Is can operate from Port Blair (naval air station INS Utkrosh) to keep tabs on the entire region,“ said the source.

But while this is a muchneeded operational requirement, India's first and only theatre command in the shape of Andaman & Nicobar Command (ANC) continues o suffer from relative neglect despite the Modi government making it a top priority . Much more needs to be done at a fas er pace to ensure ANC, with requisite military force-levels and infrastructure, can ef ectively act as a pivot to coun er China's strategic moves in OR as well as ensure security of sea lanes converging towards the Malacca Strait.

Sources said “not much progress“ has been made in he overall plan to have enough infrastructure and maintenance support with more airstrips and jetties in the 572-island cluster, extend ing over 720-km, to eventually deploy a division-level force (around 15,000 troops), a fight er squadron and some major warships there. As of now amid turf wars among Army Navy and IAF as well as fund crunches and environmenta concerns, ANC has just over an infantry brigade (3,000 sol diers), 20 small warships and patrol vessels, and a few Mi-8 helicopters and Dornier-228 patrol aircraft.