Fighting The Sea Dragon - My special report on Indian Navy ops in the Andaman Sea

[Galaxy]

Fighting The Sea Dragon - special report on Indian Navy ops in the Andaman Sea - Headline Today. ( - Shiv Aroor)


'China eyeing India's islands' : Ground Zero: Headlines Today

 

[Falcon]

That's what happens when your end is near. You start provoking the peaceful masses. Initially you win and you do more. You win again and you do more. When it goes beyond the limits, the mass retaliates and you are destroyed. That's what China is doing right now. Its provoking the peaceful masses of all the countries around the world. When the world retaliates, it would lie in ruins.

 

[The Messiah]

Chinis are scoring own goal everytime they needle us.

 

[Galaxy]

So, COCO ISLANDS of Myanmar are controlled by China ???

http://www.indoburmanews.net/archives-1/2008/august-2008/china-in-coco-islands-india2019s-worry/

 

[Galaxy]

Indian Navy tackles Chinese maritime challenge in the Indian Ocean

Shiv Aroor , Andaman and Nicobar, November 16, 2011​

​

The Indian Ocean might sound like it is India's, but it is certainly not. It is, in fact, a battlefield every day where the Indian Navy has been doing everything to secure its territory from the country's assertive neighbours.

Headlines Today made a trip to the middle of a war being silently fought in the Indian Ocean. India's battle headquarters for the Indian Ocean region sits on the country's most strategically located outlying territory -- the Andaman & Nicobar Islands -- that are well-known and little known at the same time.

Mysterious and strategic and located closer to Indonesia than to India, these islands form a protective shield to the Indian mainland. It is around these 572 islands that the Indian Navy has begun to build a formidable barrier of strength, a barrier that an array of insidious forces tries to penetrate every single day.

Headlines Today's cameras, allowed to film and participate in a gruelling maritime exercise, got an inside view of the tireless efforts that go into keeping Indian territory unmolested. Sitting on the mainland, it is near impossible to fathom the threats that bear down upon India's sovereign island territories. For all the strength that India possesses, these deeply strategic territories are surprisingly vulnerable.

An assertive China does not only wants India's mountain states. In fact, the legendary Chinese threat in and around Andaman & Nicobar islands is no exaggeration. It is more covert, more sinister than the aggression it displays along the line of actual control.

It is no secret that Beijing is rapidly building military infrastructure at Coco Island, a part of Myanmar and a short boat-ride away from India's northernmost island in the chain. The Chinese are also known to be building an airbase on Coco, an extremely sensitive proposition for Indian security.

The placid waters of the Andaman Sea belie the 24/7 threat perception that churns these waters on literally a daily basis. A war in the conventional sense might be a remote, forbidding notion, but that does not mean that the Indian Navy and the two other services do not practice for any eventuality. Threat perceptions even account for battle in these waters.

India has always been deeply uncertain about China's long term intentions. And, with a hugely bigger maritime force at its disposal, China's strategic reach in the Indian Ocean leaves no territory without the pall of threat.

The remoteness of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands also makes them a petri dish for unusual jointness between the navy and its two sister services that operate on air and land. Port Blair, the capital of these island territories, is home to India's largest tri-services area command, the Andaman & Nicobar Command, which celebrated its 10th anniversary earlier in 2011.

Its peculiar profile, hard-pressed resources and a forbiddingly expansive area of responsibility makes it one of the most dedicated command formations on Indian soil and, more often than not, Indian water.

Filming security drills on these islands also affords one of the rarest sights in the Indian military, the navy's elite Marine Commandos or MARCOS. No TV crew has ever filmed these fearsome commandos so closely before. Their faces remained covered because their identities must be protected at all costs. A unit of these special forces operate out of Port Blair and are available for literally any kind of operation.

Even against the Chinese threat around these islands, these commandos are a formidable first and last line of offence.

The island territories make for an extremely useful Indian listening post for the larger Indian Ocean region. But the remoteness of these islands itself represents the biggest threat to them. There is no reason to believe that forces inimical to Indian interests and sovereignty do not have designs on these islands to spy on them and the many sensitive installations they house.

In August 2011, a Chinese vessel camouflaged as a fishing trawler was spotted by the navy just off the Andaman Islands. Indian authorities concluded that the mysterious visitor was on a spy mission and was most likely being commanded by personnel of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA's) intelligence units.

Grave uncertainties surrounding China's maritime intentions in the Indian Ocean have engendered a singularly focused effort to beef up strength on the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. As a result, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands would be militarised to a much greater level over the next few years.

That includes 6,000 troops, more warships, more air bases and more docking facilities for warships. In addition, the air force would base a detachment of fighters almost permanently on the islands for the maritime interdiction and anti-shipping role.

The strategic location of these islands has more to do with just sovereignty. The navy's endless watch is not just about protecting territories. The Andaman & Nicobar Islands straddle the busiest trade routes in the world and the onus on keeping them safe and sanitised is one of the chief responsibilities of the Indian Navy. But the irony is that international waters around these territories have to be kept safe in coordination with navies that include China's, an undoubted maritime adversary.

Considering just how much energy security matters to both India and China, securing the sea lines of communication is a fierce competition, one where confrontations are always just a whisker away. The passage of billions of dollars worth of trade does not discount another potential threat in the Bay of Bengal, one that the Indian Navy has become all too familiar with and in the Arabian Sea.

Earlier this year, a Special Task Force was mandated with the singular task of formulating a strategy that will convert the Andaman & Nicobar Islands into a fearsome military buffer specifically against Chinese designs.

The government has made some hard decisions following constant and sometimes thinly disguised probing by China. The country's military hub on the Coco Island has only aggravated the threat perception.

In a significant revelation, it became known recently that plans were also afoot to transform the Andaman and Nicobar Command into a massive hub for amphibious warfare, the fine art of intertwining maritime and land warfare at every level to achieve formidable operational effect.

The fact that an overwhelming percentage of these islands is uninhabited may appeal to environmentalists and the romantic. However, the navy has no choice but to be able to make its presence felt should the need arise. With few docking facilities and certainly no way for large ships to approach most islands, amphibious landing operations form the bedrock of the joint navy-army capability here. Without it, they would be at sea, and not just literally.

Landing operations are inherently controversial. The navy was once sensitive about such a capability and the perceptions that would follow. But like almost everything else in the Indian military, there is no choice. If the job has to be done, this is the way to do it.

No theatre of potential conflict typifies the three-dimensional nature of the Chinese threat than these islands do. And that is principally why the Indian forces have no choice but to get out of their comfort zone and operate in some of the most difficult tropical conditions.

Indian Navy tackles Chinese maritime challenge in the Indian Ocean : South News - India Today​

 

[Galaxy]

 

[W.G.Ewald]

But what about the avatar and flag?

 

[vikramrana_1812]

Eyeing China, India to enter ICBM club in 3 months

The countdown has begun. Within three months, India will gatecrash the super-exclusive ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile) club, largely the preserve of countries like the US, Russia and China that brandish long-range strategic missiles with strike ranges well beyond 5,500 km.

However, it will become a full-fledged member of the club only when its most ambitious nuclear-capable Agni-V ballistic missile, which will be able to target even northern China if required, becomes fully operational in 2014.

Gung-ho a day after the successful test of the new-generation 3,500-km Agni-IV missile, senior defence scientists on Wednesday declared that Agni-V, with a strike range of over 5,000-km, would be test-fired within the December-February time-frame.

"The three-stage Agni-V is undergoing integration at the moment...it's on schedule," DRDO chief V K Saraswat said, adding that both Agni-IV and V were comparable to the best missiles in their class, including Chinese ones, as far as the technology was concerned. Agni programme director Avinash Chander said his team was "confident" of offering the 17.5-metre-tall Agni-V for induction to the armed forces by 2014. The much-lighter two-stage Agni-IV will be operational by 2013 after two to four more "repeatable" tests.

"Our aim is to take just two to three years from the first test to the induction phase," he said.

Once deployed, the 20-tonne Agni-IV and 50-tonne Agni-V will add the much-needed muscle to India's nuclear deterrence posture against China, which has a huge nuclear and missile arsenal like the 11,200-km Dong Feng-31A ICBM which is capable of hitting any Indian city. With higher accuracy, fast-reaction capability and road mobility, unlike the earlier largely rail-mobile Agni missiles, Agni-IV and V will give India the required operational flexibility against China since they will be capable of being stored and swiftly transported. If launched from the north-east, for instance, they will be able to hit high-value targets deep inside China.

India, however, is not in an arms race or "numbers game" like the US-Soviet rivalry of the Cold War era. "We are not looking at how many missiles China or Pakistan has. With a 'no first-use' nuclear weapons policy, we only want a sufficient number of missiles to defend the country in the event of a crisis. Ours is a defensive-mode strategy, even if others have offensive postures," Saraswat said. The DRDO chief added that "indigenous content" in India's strategic missiles had gone up to such a level, with ring-laser gyros, composite rocket motors, micro-navigation systems and their ilk, that "no technology control regime" could derail them any longer.

Then why not go for missiles that can fly around 10,000 km? DRDO claims that it has the capability to develop such missiles but the government does not want alarm bells to clang around the globe. India, after all, is interested only in "credible minimum deterrence" against the threats it faces. Saraswat said the current focus was on fine-tuning the Agni missiles to defeat anti-ballistic missile systems of potential adversaries. Towards this end, added Chander, the radar and other "signatures" of Agni-IV have been significantly reduced to make them "much more immune to counter-measures".

What will make the Agni missiles even more deadly is the development of MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) warheads on which the DRDO is working. An MIRV payload on a missile carries several nuclear warheads, which can be programmed to hit different targets. A flurry of such missiles can completely overwhelm BMD ( ballistic missile defence) systems.

 

[SADAKHUSH]

Eyeing China, India to enter ICBM club in 3 months

The countdown has begun. Within three months, India will gatecrash the super-exclusive ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile) club, largely the preserve of countries like the US, Russia and China that brandish long-range strategic missiles with strike ranges well beyond 5,500 km.

However, it will become a full-fledged member of the club only when its most ambitious nuclear-capable Agni-V ballistic missile, which will be able to target even northern China if required, becomes fully operational in 2014.

Gung-ho a day after the successful test of the new-generation 3,500-km Agni-IV missile, senior defence scientists on Wednesday declared that Agni-V, with a strike range of over 5,000-km, would be test-fired within the December-February time-frame.

"The three-stage Agni-V is undergoing integration at the moment...it's on schedule," DRDO chief V K Saraswat said, adding that both Agni-IV and V were comparable to the best missiles in their class, including Chinese ones, as far as the technology was concerned. Agni programme director Avinash Chander said his team was "confident" of offering the 17.5-metre-tall Agni-V for induction to the armed forces by 2014. The much-lighter two-stage Agni-IV will be operational by 2013 after two to four more "repeatable" tests.

"Our aim is to take just two to three years from the first test to the induction phase," he said.

Once deployed, the 20-tonne Agni-IV and 50-tonne Agni-V will add the much-needed muscle to India's nuclear deterrence posture against China, which has a huge nuclear and missile arsenal like the 11,200-km Dong Feng-31A ICBM which is capable of hitting any Indian city. With higher accuracy, fast-reaction capability and road mobility, unlike the earlier largely rail-mobile Agni missiles, Agni-IV and V will give India the required operational flexibility against China since they will be capable of being stored and swiftly transported. If launched from the north-east, for instance, they will be able to hit high-value targets deep inside China.

India, however, is not in an arms race or "numbers game" like the US-Soviet rivalry of the Cold War era. "We are not looking at how many missiles China or Pakistan has. With a 'no first-use' nuclear weapons policy, we only want a sufficient number of missiles to defend the country in the event of a crisis. Ours is a defensive-mode strategy, even if others have offensive postures," Saraswat said. The DRDO chief added that "indigenous content" in India's strategic missiles had gone up to such a level, with ring-laser gyros, composite rocket motors, micro-navigation systems and their ilk, that "no technology control regime" could derail them any longer.

Then why not go for missiles that can fly around 10,000 km? DRDO claims that it has the capability to develop such missiles but the government does not want alarm bells to clang around the globe. India, after all, is interested only in "credible minimum deterrence" against the threats it faces. Saraswat said the current focus was on fine-tuning the Agni missiles to defeat anti-ballistic missile systems of potential adversaries. Towards this end, added Chander, the radar and other "signatures" of Agni-IV have been significantly reduced to make them "much more immune to counter-measures".

What will make the Agni missiles even more deadly is the development of MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) warheads on which the DRDO is working. An MIRV payload on a missile carries several nuclear warheads, which can be programmed to hit different targets. A flurry of such missiles can completely overwhelm BMD ( ballistic missile defence) systems.

When I hear this bull crap "Government does not want ALARM BELLS to clang around the world", I feel like grabbing SOB and putting the heaviest bell around his or their neck and make them crawl till they give into our demand of producing missiels that can go up 10,000 KM and beyond. These so called BABU's should be sent to Sianchen Glaciers never ending duty to polish the boots of our jawans and wash their laundry only than they will appreciate the life of our great dedicated sons so that rest of its citizens can live without any fear.