Section 4:
South-western front (Sea battle)
PN and PLAN tactics:
The sea battle in the Arabian sea and Persian gulf will be primarily between the western fleet of IN and the PN and PLAN. The PN does not have a carrier or a nuclear submarine. However, they do have several frigates and destroyers, together with the PLAN nuclear submarine that can damage Indian merchant marine. The PLAN may send over a task force to the PN naval bases to harry the Indian supply lines (Oil from ME, engineering imports from EU and USA etc). The objective for PLAN and PN in the Arabian Sea/ Persian Gulf sector would be destroy as much Indian merchant marine as possible, sink a few IN ships and try to land commando missions at or near the IN naval bases in the western sector. If the PN/ PLAN can keep the IN western fleet on the defensive and draw in the southern fleet towards the defense of the Indian mainland and significantly reduce threat to the pak/ chinese merchant marine. This might also help the PLAN SSBN to slip through the IN in the Bay of Bengal to attack the IN naval bases and docks.
IN tactics:
The IN western command would like to blockade the Karachi harbor like they did in 1971. They surely have the ability to overcome any challenges posed by PN alone. However, if the PLAN sends help to the PN, the roles might be reversed and IN maybe playing defense. So, the deial scenario would be to send in the submarine fleet with support from a carrier to sink some merchant marine ships and maybe one or two PN frigates to block the approach to Karachi harbor as soon as possible. Once this is achieved it will be difficult for the PN or a PLAN task force to operate any deep draft vessel out of the largest Pak base. Since neither the PN or the PLAN task force would be a true blue water navy, forming a fleet to work independantly away from a large naval base, not to mention with no air cover (away from Karachi, with no carriers) would be impossible for the PN/PLAN combine.
In the end, a swift and decisive action by the IN can end the PN/ PLAN threat in the arabian sea/ Persian gulf, exposing the soft supply line for China and Pak merchant marine to any hunter vessel (Frigate or submarine) sent out by IN southern command. A failure to do so early on, and any loss of control by IN will lead to a reversal of fortunes with IN defending the shorelines and the Indian merchant marine at the mercy of PLAN/ PN hunters.