Indian Navy recognised as a blue water force

Kochi: The turn of the millennium saw the Indian Navy aspiring to be a veritable blue water force with capability to carry out sustained operations across deep seas far away from friendly shores.

A few new acquisitions such as the amphibious vessel INS Jalashwa (formerly USS Trenton) increased its fighting capabilities manifold.

Construction of the country’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) is steadily progressing here and despite inordinate delay and cost hiccups, INS Vikramaditya (Russian Admiral Gorshkov rechristened) should join the Navy by 2013. The Indian Navy, as part of its vision 2022 plan, aims at augmenting its assets by adding 30-plus new ships over the next decade. Building of its new line, the Kolkata-class stealth destroyers, for instance, is well under way.

With the Navy deploying its ships on operations far away from its waters, it is acknowledged to have achieved key blue water capabilities.

“The Indian Navy has always been a key player in the Indian Ocean, but with them actively taking part in anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast in the Gulf of Aden, its has proved its blue water capabilities,” Commander Ryan C. Tillotson, Commanding Officer of U.S. Destroyer The Sullivans, had told The Hindu early this year when The Sullivans arrived here.

Emerging role

The Indian Navy’s emerging role as a major maritime force in the South Asian region is evident from the success of the Navy-initiated Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), a pan-Asian maritime security forum comprising 26 littoral countries of the Indian Ocean.

“While the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has volunteered to take chairmanship of IONS March next, the United Kingdom and the United States have requested observer status in the forum, cementing our growing repute among world navies,” Vice-Admiral Sunil K. Damle, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command, told The Hindu.

Records indicate that there has been an increase in the number of foreign naval vessels docking at Kochi for interaction and exercises with the Southern Naval Command headquartered here.

So far this year, nine naval vessels from countries such as the U.S., France, the U.K., Australia, Indonesia and Bangladesh have called at Kochi and interacted with Indian Navy personnel.

Source: The Hindu