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New
Delhi, 30 November 2005
On
the eve of Navy Week 2005, we present an update on the Indian Navy.
Navy Week is celebrated each year starting from 01 Dec, with Navy
Day falling on 04 Dec, the day the IN missile boats successfully
attacked Karachi harbour in the 1971 War.
Senior
Appointments
Vice
Admiral Venkat Bharathan the Chief of Personnel, an aviator who
served as the Naval Attache in Washington DC and commanded the
Western Fleet took over as the Vice Chief of Naval Staff on 01
November and S Kaushiva and N K Verma were promoted Vice Admirals,
the former as Commandant of the Naval Academy.
Naval
Academy
The
Indian Navy’s new Academy is coming up fast at Ezhimala on the
west coast. The Navy took great pains to design an ultra modern and
sophisticated Academy, to house over 450 trainees of all ranks and
with a sanctioned staff of 1900. It has planned for what it sees in
the future, a very large Navy commensurate with the size and
population of the country, and with the ability to train naval
personnel of friendly countries too. All its earlier academies for
officer training were make shift arrangements in Kochi and then INS
Mandovi at Goa.
INS
TARANGINI
The
Indian Navy has matured to undertake round-the-world sail training
cruises. INS Tarangini, Indian Navy's Sail Training Ship, repaired
to Kochi on 8th Nov after a six and half month cruise to Europe. The
ship had set sail from Kochi on 21st Apr 05 to participate in the
Tall ship races in Europe and called at 16 ports in 13 counties
during its voyage with 185 cadets embarked on various legs of the
trip. Tarangini participated in the races from Waterford to
Cherbourg and from Newcastle to Fredrikstad and also in exhibition
races at Bremerhaven and Amsterdam. Other than the tall ships’
races, Tarangini participated in the International Fleet Review at
Portsmouth and City Parades during the Sea Festivals at Waterford,
Cherbourg and Newcastle, winning the 'Smartest Crew Trophy' at
Newcastle. Tarangini also participated in the Tall Ships event 'Mediterranceo
e Velieri' at Cagliari, Italy. Vice Admiral Suresh Bangara, C in C
South, who heads the Training Command flew to Italy to call on the
Naval brass at their Parioli HQ in Rome, met with Italian defence
industry and then proceeded to visit INS Tarangini in Sardinia.
Relations between the Indian and Italian Navies have warmed after
the consultancy contract was awarded for the 37,500 ton Air Defence
Ship to Fincanteiri, while Alenia will provide the Oto Melara 76mm
guns and Finmeccanica has a good presence in India. WAAS are
collaborating with Bharat Dynamics Ltd to manufacture torpedoes in
India. The Italian Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sergio Biraghi is
due to visit India in November as a guest of the CNS Admiral Arun
Prakash and the WAAS torpedo Black Shark is one of the choices in
contention for the Type 75 Scorpene submarine.
Navy Day, 04
December
There
is visible pride among the Indian Navy’s ranks for what it had
achieved in the year gone by, and what it sees as its ambitious
expansion plans for the future. Twenty-one ships were on order and
others like the LPD USS Trenton, were likely to be inducted from
abroad. A repeat order for three Krivacks of the Talwar class from
Russia was also on the table. The Navy looks forward to celebrate
Navy Day on 4th December and play host on a high note to the
President, Prime Minister and dignitaries at an ‘At Home’ at the
residence of the Chief of Naval Staff in Delhi, 12 Rajaji Marg
(known as King George Avenue in the old days). There is no doubt
that after the Chinese, Japanese and possibly the Spanish Navy the
Indian Navy’s expansion plans are the most impressive as one of
the fastest growing Navies in the world. During the Commander’s
Conference, held from 23rd October, the Government publicly lauded
the Indian Navy for its achievements in Tsunami relief work, efforts
at indigenisation. The Prime Minister and Defence Minister had
assured that the government would provide long-term funding.
''Mindful of the long gestation period naval projects take, the
government will ensure that the Navy is provided with long term
funding support from the Ministry of Defence for a sustained growth
over the plan periods, '' were the words of the Defence Minister and
speaking specifically about the role of the Navy, Dr. Manmohan Singh
had said that India had a vital stake in the security of the sea
lanes to the east and west. "The Indian Navy, therefore, must
expand its capability to protect these sea lanes. We must ensure
workable alliances with like-minded countries for the security of
these sea lanes, for our commercial and energy security”. This was
music to naval ears, which at 16% had the lowest share of the
Defence budget.
Navy
–– The Technology Leader
All
three service HQs recently joined hands with the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K), to design advanced encryption algorithms
for strategic communications systems and data links used by block
cipher systems, the Navy being the first off the mark. This follows
IIT-K’s successful development of the Trinetra (third eye)
encryption security standard for the Navy that allows warships to
exchange voice, data and imagery with each other as well as with
facilities on shore in a secure environment. The Navy is also
equipping its three existing Project 15 Delhi-class guided-missile
destroyers with on-board control/imagery interpretation stations
required for undertaking round-the-clock maritime surveillance
operations over the high seas with shore-launched IAI/Malat-built
Heron II medium-altitude high-endurance UAVs. The UAV control
stations are even transferred on board the Leander class ships like
INS Vindhyagiri and have proved successful in operations. The Navy
is raising three squadrons for dedicated UAV operations, while
Israel announced that the Armed Forces were buying 50 more Herons
worth $ 250 m.
Strategic
Sealift Capability
To
achieve strategic sealift capability the Navy was acquiring a
follow-on batch of two plus one large landing ship tanks (LST-L)
that were ordered in December 2001. The first of these INS Shardul
built by state-owned, Garden Reach Shipbuilding & Engineers Ltd
(GRSE) at Kolkata, was launched in April 2004, while the second, INS
Kesari was launched on 8 June this year. Each LST is 124. 8m long
17. 5m-wide, displaces 5,600 tonnes, and has a cruising speed of 15.
8 knots. Each of them can carry 11 main battle tanks, 10 motorised
vehicles and up to 500 soldiers. Naval Headquarters was also looking
forward to the purchase of ex-US Navy landing platform dock (LPD),
the 16,900 dwt USS Trenton, at an estimated cost of US$46 million.
Prior to its delivery, the LPD would be refurbished and upgraded to
guarantee 15 years of seaworthy life. This LPD will serve as an
amphibious transport-cum-cargo ship, and its flight deck can
opearate helicopters while its well deck can be ballasted and
deballasted to support the ingress and egress of hovercraft like the
GRSE-assembled Griffon 8000TD(M). The Navy was also weighing the
merits of procuring four preowned USN Osprey-class GRP-hulled
ocean-going minesweepers, built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems,
for clearing coastal and ocean waters, shore areas, and harbours of
pressure/contact, acoustic, and magnetic mines.
Brahmos
Missile Makes Progress
Good
progress had been made on the installation of the naval version of
the Brahmos missile on board the five Kashins now based at
Visakhapatnam. INS Rajput was fitted out with four Brahmos missiles,
leaving four P20 missiles in the other launch containers on the bow
deck. In a revolutionary engineering feat the INS Ranvir was
currently being fitted out with 8 vertically launched Brahmos
missiles in the mid section of the ship by removing the aft Volna RZ
31 SAM system, since the two aft AK 630 30mm guns had been replaced
by a Barak Missile system for close air defence. INS Ranvijay will
be the next ship when it comes in for its mid life refit making
these ships very potent missile platforms with a sea and land reach
of 300km with multiple choices of homing heads including scene
recognition for land attack, it was claimed. The models of these
modifications on the Kashins and the 16 VLS Brahmos nestle for the F
15A under construction at Mazagon Docks Ltd, were displayed
prominently at the DEFENCE 2005 exposition held a the modern IMPACT
exhibition complex at Bankgok, from 2nd to 5th November. The
complicated engineering for the vertical launch nestles is being
undertaken by the Indian engineering giant Larsen and Tubro, which
had developed and often displayed their universal launcher for the
three services. Rear Admiral S D Gupta who was DG Naval Design, had
on retirement joined BrahMos Aerospace to oversee the projects. The
affable Dr Sivathanu Pillai the CEO of BrahMos Aerospace Ltd, with
his professional team which included many retired naval officers was
at hand at the show, to explain the technical characteristics of the
missile with very impressive video clippings of the successful
firings which included the successful sinking of two Petya class
decommissioned ships.
Brahmos
Export To Thailand And Chile
The
Thai Navy had made inquires and was looking to import the Brahmos
missile and was a potential customer. On 03 October a high-powered
delegation led by Lt Gen Nguyen Thinh, Head of Vietnam’s Defence
Research Centre, on a visit to India was believed to have made a
formal request for details for procuring a limited number of
surface-to-surface missiles like the Prithvi SS-250 and BrahMos. In
June this year the IN supplied a large consignment of much-needed
spares for the Viet Nam Navy’s Osa II-class missile gunboats. The
spares consignment comprised 900 boxes weighing 150 tonnes.
The
Commander in Chief of the Chilean Navy Admiral Rudolfo Codina
arrived in New Delhi for a week long visit on 06 November and his
visit came ahead of the visit by India’s Defence Minister Pranab
Mukherjee to Chile in end October, with a large team that included
Dr Sivathanu Pillai the head of BrahMos. The purpose of the Defence
Minster’s visit was to push sales of HAL built 30 ALH Dhruv
helicopters and other hardware including the BrahMos missile on
Chile’s invitation. Defence Minister Jaime Ravinet had visited
India earlier this year.
The
previous reported defence deal that India struck with Chile in the
early 1980s was when the IAF acquired a few thousand CB-500 cluster
bombs from CARDOEN Metalnor Industries for its Jaguar IS and
MiG-23BN/MiG-27M combat aircraft. This Chilean company later
concluded technology transfer agreements with India's OFB, with Iraq
and with DENEL of South Africa to undertake local manufacture of
such cluster bombs. The Indian Navy went in for the BL-755 cluster
bombs from the then Hunting Engineering of UK. However defence
export cooperation between India and Russia, experienced a minor
hitch when Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov on a visit to
India to witness the naval and army Exercise Indira 05 in mid
October, insisted on an intellectual property rights (IPR) agreement
to be concluded, before any exports could be contemplated by India
and warned that source codes would not be provided. Ivanov said the
two countries had outstripped the old, client-provider relationship
on the weapons front after they jointly developed the sophisticated
BrahMos cruise missile, which was believed to be comparable to the
US Tomahawk cruise missile in some of its capabilities and outstrips
the Harpoon.
Mauritius–India
Naval Cooperation
Mauritius
Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam accompanied by a 13 member
delegation to India, stopped over in Kochi and visited the Southern
Naval Command on 27th October. He announced that Mauritius was set
to purchase an indigenously developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH)
Dhruv and an offshore Patrol vessel from India for its large
Exclusive Economic Zone. He also visited INS Sharda, an offshore
Patrol vessel. The Mauritius Coast Guard had earlier acquired two
vessels from India. Currently the Seaward Defence Boat T61
christened ‘Guardian”, under the command of an IN officer, was
undergoing a refit in the Naval Dockyard. India would also assist
Mauritius in hydrographic survey of her ports, islands and the
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
to this effect was signed between Rear Admiral B R Rao, Chief
Hydrographer to the Government of India and Mr S C Seeballuck,
Secretary Home Affairs in the Mauritian Prime Minister's Office. To
begin with, one of the 8 survey ships of the Indian Navy would be
deployed in an area, to be identified by the Mauritius Government,
in January next year. A committee, with representatives from both
sides, will be set up to work out future requirements
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