Coastal security pressures 'sink' blue-water dreams

[sandeepdg]

NEW DELHI: India's coastal security concerns are exacting a heavy toll on its naval 'blue-water' aspirations, maritime diplomacy and operational readiness.

Sources say Navy has been forced to cancel the deployment of its frontline warships to Mediterranean Sea and North Atlantic in August-September, which was to include a series of combat exercises with several countries like France, UK and Turkey, due to 'heavy commitments' in the coastal security arena.

Navy did dispatch five of its eastern fleet warships to Vladivostok in Russia earlier this year, with the 'Simbex' exercise with Singaporean Navy and the 'Malabar' one with US warships being conducted on the way. But the western fleet's overseas deployment stands scrapped now.

Even since the 26/11 terror strikes in 2008, operational deployment of warships and surveillance aircraft of both Navy and Coast Guard has seen 'a quantum jump' on both the west and east coasts.

"Warship deployment has gone up by 60-80% and aircraft deployment by 100% for coastal security tasking. In July alone, for instance, there were about 440 ship and 190 aircraft surveillance sorties," said a defence ministry official.

"Moreover, a total of 165 coastal security operations, 54 exercises and 259 awareness campaigns for fishermen have been conducted between January 2009 and June 2011," he added.

This sharp increase in 'predictive utilization rates'' of warships and aircraft for coastal security, as also for anti-piracy operations, is pushing both men as well as machines to 'their very limits'.

"Earlier, a warship was at sea for 15 days in a month, with the remaining time left for maintenance at harbour. Now, it's at sea for 20-25 days. Operational life of ships and aircraft is being consumed at a much faster rate now," admitted an official.

But that does not detract from the fact that even abandoned ships like MT Pavit have managed to breach the three-tier security ring of Navy, Coast Guard and marine police in recent days.

'Physical surveillance' alone by Navy and Coast Guard will not do any longer. 'Electronic surveillance' measures, promised by the government under 'fast-track procedures', are equally critical but are yet to materialize on the ground even three years after 26/11.

Coastal security pressures 'sink' blue-water dreams - The Times of India

 

[agentperry]

thats why USN maintain such a big fleet... sooner or later this was bound to happen, interesting to see how MoD and Navy tackles this challenge.

 

[Tshering22]

I think it is important that we maintain a more fierce presence in the IOR and Arabian Sea as well as BoB. Our combat theatre is going to be IOR, BOB and AS. Why the heck should we send our ships to Atlantic and Mediterranean? Wargames okay, but stationing them? Nope. We're not big enough as of now.

The FIRST priority of IN is to make sure that our 1,500+ islands and 7,500 Km coastline is 99% of not 100% safe. That's a huge task.

 

[arya]

we need more numbers

we have to increase our numbers if we really want to show our role

strong punishment can only stop terrorist, airforce navy army cant do any thing unless we dont have strong punishment but we are making them our national guest

 

[LETHALFORCE]

I don't see the connnection between coastal security and being a blue water navy?? Every nation that has a coast has some form of coastal security even with they do not have a navy. India is well on it's way to becoming a blue water navy, work has already started on the second nuclear submarine. and 3 aircraft carriers by 2020.

 

[sandeepdg]

I don't see the connnection between coastal security and being a blue water navy?? Every nation that has a coast has some form of coastal security even with they do not have a navy. India is well on it's way to becoming a blue water navy, work has already started on the second nuclear submarine. and 3 aircraft carriers by 2020.

LF sir, I think this news meant, that we had to divert ships from the Western fleet meant for exercises in the Mediterranean and Atlantic with the Europeans because of the coastal security scares like MV Pavit incident and the increasing instances of piracy close to the Indian coastline. Anybody dreaming to be a blue water navy should have adequate force levels to tackle local challenges like anti-piracy in our coastal waters and policing functions like that of the Coastguard. Also, the Coast Guard comes under the rule of the Navy, and its force levels are woefully inadequate. As has been reported above in the article, each ship is spending 20-25 days on the sea rather than the usual schedule of 15 days, hence both men and machine are overworked and may bog them down.