by Commodore Ranjit B Rai (Retd)

India's peninsula juts into the Indian Ocean like a dagger, with four choke points to check any entrant, favouring India's strategic dynamics in the Asia-Pacific. India's maritime geography is its trump card in this century.

The Navy has 2 aircraft carriers with MiG-29K fighters carrying K-35 air-to-surface missiles and rockets. It operates KA-31 AEW and the newly inducted MH-60R Sea Hawk attack helicopters from Lockheed (12 of 26 arrived), 12 destroyers, and 12 frigates, all with powerful missiles, 13 landing platforms, a home-built nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine and 16 conventionally powered attack submarines, 18 corvettes, 3 fleet tankers as well as 28 auxiliary support vessels.

Around fifty-five large and small ships are on order in Indian Shipyards, including three support ships at Hindustan Shipyard Ltd and two Krivaks in Russia at Yantar in Russia. Due to the Russo-Ukraine war, Russian supplies have slowed.

All Indian Navy ships are equipped to handle diverse maritime challenges, provide humanitarian aid, hunt pirates and attackers at sea and have a modicum of nuclear deterrence from the sea. The Navy adheres to a Maritime Capability Perspective Plan (MCPP) and has built world-class 500 km anti-ship cum surface Brahmos and 60 km Barak AA missiles and fitted them on front-line ships.

It has fitted the underwater 650 km K-15/BO-05 nuclear-capable missiles in the home-built nuclear submarines INS Arihant and INS Arighat, which await commissioning.

The nuclear-capable 3000 km K-4 has been tested from an underwater launcher. All of the Navy's airborne, surface, and subsurface platforms are networked over a common data link using multiple means of communication, including Rukmini.

The Navy has around 220 aircraft, including 40 MiG-29Ks and 12 P8i Boeings operating from INS Hansa at Goa and from a Southern Air Station and Heron and Searcher drones, including 2 MQ-Guardians drones on lease from General Atomics.

The Guardians operated on the Indo-China border in 2020. An order for 26 Rafale-M fighters for the two aircraft carriers has been placed on Dassault; 12 out of 26 MH-60R multi-role helicopters from Lockheed with Kongsberg naval missiles and Mk 58 torpedoes have arrived for induction, replacing the Seakings MK-42B.

The IN is unique because its pedigree is from the Royal Navy, founded as the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) on 2nd October 1934. The RIN took part in WWII with distinction, lauded by C-in-C Lord Louis Mountbatten.

In 1950, India became a Republic and dropped the prefix Royal. In the 1960s, the IN deputed around 3000 officers and sailors to the United Kingdom's shipyards to commission the 28,000-ton aircraft carrier INS Vikrant (1961) with Seahawks and Alizes, and they brought back eight new potent frigates.

After being shunned by the West, India had to forcibly turn to the Soviet Union for warships, submarines, aircraft and helicopters, and large cadres went to the Soviet Union to bring back ships, submarines and planes.

Many were trained in specialist schools and imbibed the best operational features of the Soviet Navy that paid dividends in the 1971 war and heralded Missile Warfare from the Seas. IN's Osa class boats ingeniously struck PN ships off Karachi in the opening bell of that war.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the IN turned to the USA to gain technology and acquire equipment. At the same time, the Government continued to balance Russia and the USA in a cold war developing situation.

The IN is also unique as the IN learnt to operate the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange (CENTRIX) satellite systems loaned by the US Navy to IN ships in the Malabar exercises and then operated the ISRO-supplied GSAT 7 satellite with an Israel-supplied antenna for net-centric warfare. IN's forte is its deep training, and men and women of calibre, man ships fly aircraft and man submarines.

Hence, it can be said that the Navy, called "India's Cinderella Service", has emerged from its chrysalis, pulled itself up by its bootstraps and gotten its act together. IN is the envy of many Navies, as seen in exercises like Malabar with the US, Japanese and Australian QUAD navies, RIMPAC with multiple navies, Garuda with the French Navy and Konkan with the Royal Navy and the Russian Navy.

The Indian Navy is India's maritime instrument, and it can play the right hand with the Indian Air Force's sea-going assets in a Sea-Air Battle Strategy.

With better economic conditions in the last decade, the Indian Navy's capabilities have grown under the audacious and determined leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who realises the geo-strategic importance of the seas around us.

With the efforts of the Navy and DRDO, ample shipbuilding steel is now available locally to Indian shipbuilders, and the timeline of shipbuilding has been reduced. All front-line ships have advanced world-class radars and advanced technology, like the Multi-Function M/F ELM 2248 Star radar from Elta (Israel).

The M/F STAR radar is reported to deliver better-quality situation plots and weapon support than the US Aegis system. The Navy's 40,000-ton aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, built by Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) that flies MiG-29K with K-35 missiles, has the Selex RAN 40L, which is an L band search radar developed by Leonardo. The radar provides long-range maritime air surveillance and early warning, and it is a solid-state active phased array radar.

In 2020, Spain's new Indira radar factory tied up with TATA Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) to install 23 Lanza-N solid-state, up-mast radars specifically tailored for small target detection and weapon direction. Terma of Denmark tied up with Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and supplies Scanter navigation radars.

The front-line warships have the Long Range 500km Brahmos missiles (the fastest one-kill in the world) and 60 km Barak air attack missiles, both made in India and many systems like Garpun B and P-20 missiles and radars from Russia have been replaced by these Indian systems.

The fast-firing AK630 guns fitted on ships are made in India. The Indian Navy can confront any adversary threatening India and its naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Creativity aside, the IN has grown in stature.

The 12 Maritime Reconnaissance Boeing 737 P8I have state-of-the-art APS multi-mode air APS radars, ECM sensors, a sonobuoys panel for submarine detection, and an air direction radar to guide powerful MK-54 Harpoon missiles and Torpedoes MK-58.

The Navy has to be congratulated on producing hardware in India and selecting systems from abroad. Make in India has been its policy since its inception, and it is now Atmanirbhar.

The Navy is also the Net Security Provider (NSP) in Mission Sagar (Security and Growth for All in the Region) that PM Modi coined, and the Navy has contributed much to the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) states with platforms, training and exercises.

The Navy's Information Fusion Centre (IFC-IOR) in Gurgaon near Delhi maintains a 24x7 plot of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) with the Action Information (AIS) responses from ships, intelligence, Janes and other inputs for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) and shares it with friendly nations.

An oceanic plot is an inescapable tool for operational and war planning and Search and Rescue (SAR) Operations via the Internet in real-time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Navy ships joined Mission 'Vande Bharat' (the evacuation of Indian citizens from Indian Ocean Island nations by air and sea).

Support to IN is provided from its bases and shipyards in the government and private sectors. Mumbai and Vizag bases are being augmented by bases at Karwar and Varsha (mainly for nuclear submarines) on the East Coast.

Much of this is due to the Navy's belief in a compact size, intensive training, buying the best available systems and unambivalent decision-making. It has the distinction of being the only service with an unclassified doctrine and an ambitious maritime strategy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh have propelled India to the world stage by fleet ships to spend more time abroad and provide training to around 15 friendly Navies. Given more resources, the IN has the capacity and capability to expand.

This essay reflects author's opinions alone