India needs one CBG in the Far East command to address the vital Malacca Straits from which 70% of world shipping passes. But while that complement is busy in the Malacca Straits, who will look after India’s eastern coast around Vizag and Chennai… Without a shade of doubt, India needs one CBG in the Far East command to address the vital Malacca Straits from which 70% of world shipping passes. But while that complement is busy in the Malacca Straits, who will look after India’s eastern coast around Vizag and Chennai, a good 1000 miles distant from Port Blair and 30 hours travel time for fighting ships? This much time is much too much in war time. For instance, enemy submarines can sneak into the Eastern coastline, much like the PNS Ghazi during the 1971 war, but unlike the Ghazi, can cause havoc in a future war. By inductive logic, it can be argued that India thus needs a minimum of two CBGs in the Bay of Bengal. The Arabian Sea can similarly be divided into the southern area from Mumbai to Karwar/Lacadive islands, and the northern area from Mumbai reaching to Daman and Diu and the Makran Coast. That brings to two the number of CBGs required in the Arabian Sea. This arithmetic is actually simpler than made to be. It also needs to be realized that a naval defense force needs to be tightly integrated, with each fleet capable of supporting another and each complement being capable of rushing to the aid of another in time of war, which cannot be left to chance and luck. Only three CBGs flung far and wide do not fulfill the requirement of tight integration. However, while no one doubts that three aircraft carriers serve a considerable deterrence purpose, it should be realized that three aircraft carriers was a rationalized request by an impoverished Indian navy that was being repeatedly told by its political masters that there was no money with India to fulfill all the navy’s requests.įirst of all, from a strategy perspective, three aircraft carriers are grossly insufficient for the new battle lines being drawn in the Indian Ocean shipping lanes that carry oil from the volatile Middle East and the new threats arising anew in the South China Sea. Next, neither the Bay of Bengal, nor the Arabian Sea, nor the southern seaboard are small lakes the size of a Black Sea where one CBG each could suffice India’s exclusive economic zone, alone, amounts to an area that is 70% of the Indian mainland, which is huge for a navy to patrol, leave alone the fact that the entire Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea are many times larger. …from a strategy perspective, three aircraft carriers are grossly insufficient for the new battle lines being drawn in the Indian Ocean shipping lanes that carry oil from the volatile Middle East and the new threats arising anew in the South China Sea. From all that has been printed and published, it continues to sound that about three aircraft carriers battle groups (CBG) will suffice for India, such that once India has these three carrier battle groups its naval woes will be addressed. However, this paper argues that the concept that we may consider it sufficient to stop at three or four CBG’s is fundamentally flawed from a strategic perspective for India’s short and long term security needs. But, there is no firm production plan for an IAC in 2020 or subsequent IAC’s after that. INS Vikramaditya is now expected to enter service in 2013, the first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC-1) is likely to be ready in 2014, while IAC-2 is expected in 2017, though the entire timetable may be delayed. At first glance, a jump from one, failing aircraft carrier in the Indian navy’s arsenal to three new ones sounds like a prodigious leap of 200% and more.ĭefense minister Antony has gone on record to say that at least two Indigenous aircraft carriers (IAC) will be deployed soon, while Admiral Nirmal Varma stated that at least three IAC’s will be constructed. Since a few years now, India has been working towards procuring three aircraft carriers, commensurate with the mission and request of the Indian Navy to defend India’s sea coast and sea lanes. The three aircraft carriers are planned to serve the western, eastern, and southern seaboards.
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