Navy emerges as India’s go-to diplomatic tool

The recent foiling of a piracy attempt by shift action of an already deployed Indian warship, INS Chennai, in the Arabian Sea highlights the long reach of the Indian Navy and its emergence as the preferred instrument of Indian diplomacy. The Navy has been ensuring that the waters off the Strait of Hormuz as well as the Horn of Africa are safe for transit through the deployment of a flotilla since 2008. The Navy’s presence in distant waters allows for prompt response to emerging threats, disaster relief, and collaborative exercises, fostering goodwill and partnerships but going beyond as a deterrent signature of India worldwide. The Indian Navy has inherited the British Royal navy legacy of the control of the sea from Aden to Singapore and has extended to the South China Sea. The developing Indo-Pacific presence is a new and increasing footprint for the force. In that sense the Indian Navy is unique. Unlike the continental defensive mindset, the Navy defines outreach. It is the very embodiment of the great theorist of the oceans, Alfred Mahan, and his advocacy of the control of the sea as the centrepiece of security. This has included operating aircraft carriers since the 1960s. It was demonstrated by the stunning raid using OSA class missile boats that set Karachi harbour alight in 1971 and put fear of the almighty among the believers in Pakistan. The Indian fleet’s total control of East Pakistan through deployment of the aircraft carrier battle group in Bombing Dhaka in 1971 was instrumental in the creation of a new nation — Bangladesh. More recently during the Kargil war the Indian Navy locked up the sea facing Pakistan forcing the Pakistan Navy to stay put in its harbour. As Make in India gathers force in defence, the Navy has been doing the project for years. At a recent media interaction Admiral R Hari Kumar the chief of the naval staff said that out of 67 shipbuilding projects 65 are being built by Indian Shipyards. He pointed out that approximately 90 per cent indigenisation in the Surface ships complemented by 60 per cent in the freight segment, and about 50 per cent indigenisation in the air arm. From Submarine design to aircraft carrier ski jumps down to the hull of massive missile destroyers the Indian Navy is building it all at home. The gathering storm Even with these impressive achievements storm clouds are gathering. For one thing the most critical of the Indian Navy’s responsibility is to have a proven second-strike nuclear weapon capability vis a vis China. This is crucial because India has professed a doctrine of no first use of nuclear weapons that calls for a crippling nuclear second strike to annihilate the enemy. This capability is only possible through a nuclear-powered submarine with long-range nuclear warhead-equipped missiles. That project is facing technological hurdles and delays. There is a developing time gap in testing of India’s homemade nuclear submarine and missiles which is a major worry.  The lack of rigorous time bound and sufficient testing of the submarine INS Arighat and a missile such as K4 which will have a 3,500 km range puts the nuclear triad under a shadow of doubt. This is a shadow India can ill afford. New technology is testing old doctrines of the Indian navy. Access denial weapons from cheap drones to missiles are bringing back in fashion a man who wrote the theories of sea denial. The Navy is confronted — like all big navies with the resurgence in interest in the theories of Julain Corbett. Corbett had proposed that the object of a sound Navy strategy is defensive. To deny the enemy space and it is apparent in the new strategies of Houthis in the Red Sea for example that try with $20,000 suicide drones and $200,000 missiles to threaten and put multimillion-dollar warships and container ships at risk. The proliferation of sensors hypersonic missiles and drones can complicate India’s strategy of controlling the seas through forward deployment of aircraft carrier battle groups soon. The Indian Navy has opted for a third aircraft carrier in a fast-changing threat and technology environment. This could be the last aircraft carrier in the navy given that we need to build on the vast achievement of capabilities that built our home-made aircraft carrier. India needs three of these $5 billion a ship as at any given time one may be undergoing maintenance. For the Navy to be future-ready it may have to choose between more submarines and emerging technologies and smaller weapon-packed platforms rather than giant warships. As with other parts of Indian defence India needs to spend more on defence and should aim at 3 per cent of GDP from about 2 per cent currently within this decade. That money will need a strategic reorientation of priorities to ensure it is well spent. The Indian Navy is a good place to begin. The writer is a senior journalist with expertise in defence. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.