India’s navy will open a third air base in the far-off Andaman and Nicobar islands on Thursday to beef up surveillance of Chinese ships and submarines entering the Indian Ocean through the nearby Malacca Straits, military officials and experts said.
When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced earlier this month that the Indian Navy had completed its first sea-based nuclear deterrent patrol it was more of a statement of intent than a demonstration of a new capability.The Indian Navy’s new ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) INS Arihant was the boomer that completed the month-long deterrent patrol. Whilst this is not insignificant – it is the first country outside of the five members of the U.N. Security Council to develop this capability – it also shows how far away India is to achieve its goal of joining the other great powers in establishing a credible sea-based deterrent.Only the U.S., U.K., France and Russia can sustain continuous-at-sea deterrent patrols, which a provides continuous launch capability of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) by maintaining at least one SSBN on station at any one time that could fire a nuclear missile. A continuous patrol requires a minimum of four SSBNs.The patrol as a statement will have more effect in diplomatic circles than in military ones. India wants to join the club of countries that can support a sea-based deterrent and eventually achieve a continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent. It also means India will have the ability to launch all three air, land and sea-based types of nuclear weapons and a more robust second strike capability.
With the second refitment of INS Vikramaditya over, the country’s lone operational aircraft carrier will be entering the sea-trial stage by next week. The short refit, at an expense of Rs 705 crore, was carried out at the Cochin Shipyard and the aircraft carrier is now docked at Ernakulam Wharf, prior to the commencement of the sea trials.During an onboard visit arranged by the Navy for media persons on Saturday, Commanding Officer of INS Vikramaditya Captain Puruvir Das said the refitment of the ship has been completed.“However, a few tests, including the checks on the ship’s boilers, are underway. Soon, we will start the sea trials, which will take place off the Kochi and Goa coasts. We are hopeful of returning to the Western Naval Command without delay,” he said.
The Indian Navy is moving ahead with a big-ticket proposal for acquiring its third aircraft carrier which is expected to cost around Rs 1.6 lakh crore along with the additional component of 57 fighter aircraft.The Navy has one operational aircraft carrier in the INS Vikramaditya while another one, INS Vikrant, is under construction at the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) and is expected to join service in the next few years.“The Navy is planning to field its Rs 70,000 crore proposal before the defence ministry in near future which will cost around Rs 1.6 lakh crore at the approval stage itself along with the fighter plane component and the actual costs will go higher further as the programme moves ahead,” government sources told Mail Today.The Navy has plans of buying 57 twin-engine fighter planes for the third aircraft carrier for which American F-18 and French Dassault Rafale are in the race.“If one goes by the cost of the 36 Rafales acquired for the Air Force, the 57 planes are not going to cost us less than Rs 90,000-95,000 crore,” the sources said.
New Delhi has furthered its plans to lease another Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) for the Indian Navy (IN) for around 10 years at a cost of around USD1.5-2 billion.
Official sources told IHS Jane's that Moscow and New Delhi agreed at this year's India-Russia summit in Goa on 15 October that India would lease a half-built 8,140-tonne Project 971 'Akula'-class boat from 2021-22 onwards, the completion and sea trials of which India would finance.
Construction of the proposed SSN is said to have been suspended in the early 1990s following the break-up of the Soviet Union, as happened to the submarine formerly known as Nerpa (K 152): the SSN that entered IN service in April 2012 under the name INS Chakra on a 10-year lease for around USD962 million.
A high-level Indian delegation will be visiting Russia shortly to finalize an agreement on renting the Yasen class submarine for the Indian Navy. Government sources told Sputnik that renting the second nuclear powered attack submarine from Russia would result in the introduction of newer technology into India, which would eventually pave the way for Russian collaboration with India for it program to build six new SSN.
There are still a number of problems with India's Russian-built Mikoyan MiG-29K/KUB aircraft, as well as with the aircraft carrier formerly known as Admiral Gorshkov that entered Indian Navy service in 2013, sources in India have told IHS Jane's .
The complaints about the MiG-29K/KUB aircraft are generally due to the inability of the Russian firm RSK-MiG to deliver a complete aircraft that incorporates all of the features promised in the contractual documents signed by both parties.
Indian experts who have visited the test base at Goa, where flight training with the aircraft is conducted, report that the MiG-29Ks are being delivered to India in a substandard configuration. The aircraft, said one specialist who visited the Goa base recently, "are literally being upgraded and brought up to spec while on the flightline".
The chief culprit in this dilemma, say both Indian and Russian specialists, are the combined embargoes enacted by the Ukrainian government that bar the export of any military-use items to Russia, along with the EU and US sanctions that prohibit the export of Western military components to Moscow. The 'workaround' has been for India to import these items directly, then have them integrated onto the aircraft on-site at the Goa base.
Even as the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has not yet made public its recent test of nuclear capable submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) K-4, the elite agency, known for developing some best weapons with minimum failures, has validated a few new technologies pushing the country one step ahead in indigenous technology.
A source on Tuesday told ‘The Express’ that the mission conducted secretly on March 7 from a submerged pontoon (replica of a submarine) in the Bay of Bengal off the Visakhapatnam coast was a ‘roaring’ success. Some critical parameters set by the mission team were successfully met during the test.
India will reportedly shortly announce a tendering procedure for building its fourth aircraft carrier. A new Russian project called “Storm”, which was made public last year, is said to be among the frontrunners.
India’s plans to have a new aircraft carrier have been floating around for some time. French defense newsletter TTU reported that a French delegation visited India in late January to propose the naval version of the Dassault Rafale jet to complement its future bid. The US is also eyeing the lucrative contract.
However, according to the Izvestia newspaper, the Russian project is the favorite in the upcoming tender. Russia's Krylovsky State Research Center (KRSC) will be offering its new multipurpose heavy aircraft carrier design called Project 23000E Shtorm (Storm). The project was first revealed to the public in June at the Army-2015 show near Moscow, where a scale model of the ship was exhibited.
If you have watched cable news television in the last several months, you have probably seen a Make in India (MII) ad or two. To be sure, the US-Indian relationship is not only that of buyer-seller, it’s about prospective partnership in the defense sector: The US envisions India as a long-term, geostrategic and security partner. How India perceives this relationship going forward with respect to Russia and China will be telling.
Furthermore, there are high expectations for India’s role in Afghanistan, which have been improved by its willingness to re-engage dialogue with Pakistan at the Heart of Asia Conference earlier last week in Islamabad.
Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter recently reconnoitered in Washington, and their latest official meeting signals that the US is indeed paying more attention to Asia. Whether or not the US is cultivating a new "special relationship" remains to be seen; however, it is worth noting that India is the only country for whom US authorities have established a special cell within the Pentagon to handle defense collaboration.
The India Rapid Reaction Cell (IRRC) falls under the purview of the International Cooperation Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. The significance of this initiative should not be understated.
The United States ambassador to India said the two nations increasingly have a common vision of security across the Indo-Pacific region that is translating into “our forces and systems … becoming interoperable” for an array of missions.
Ambassador Richard Verma, speaking Friday at The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said this is particularly true in the maritime domain. In the past week, Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar meet with Adm. Harry Harris, Pacific Command commander in Hawaii, and then flew on an MV-22 Osprey with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) to see first-hand carrier strike group operations as part of their two-day discussion “of deepening security relations.” Carter earlier in the year became the first American Defense secretary to tour an Indian operational command.
Verma added that 2015 marked the beginning of the nations’ Defense trade technology initiative (DTTI) to “further integrate our defense industries” most notably in aviation and aircraft carrier development. In the last year, the ambassador said bilateral defense trade amounted to $14 billion, including a $3 billion contract with Boeing to deliver AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopters to India. In turn, India will manufacture some parts for the Apaches.
Looking ahead into early 2016, he cited India’s planned involvement in the next Rim of the Pacific exercise, the United States participation in India’s Fleet review in February and both participating in a regional special operations forces (SOF) exercise in January.
In a blast of rotor wash from a Marine MV-22 Osprey, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Indian Minister of Defense Manohar Parrikar came aboard one of the largest and most technical expressions of American power projection — a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.
Parrikar’s delegation of civilian officials and flag and general officers from all branches of the Indian military nibbled on treats from Ike’s galley before watching F/A-18s catapult from the flight deck and quizzing the ship’s crew on the day-to-day realities of carrier operations.
The trip — while a textbook execution of the Navy’s age-old distinguished visitor carrier visit program — took on extra significance as the U.S. and India continue to outline how the two countries could cooperate in constructing India’s second domestically built aircraft carrier and deepen bilateral operations.
Before departing the Pentagon on Thursday, Carter and Parrikar held a joint press conference to serve as an update on how defense cooperation between two countries is progressing since the early 2015 India and U.S. Defense Technology and Trade Initiative agreement.
The Indian Air Force and Navy plan to re-enact an exercise performed off the northern coast of Gujarat nearly 40 years ago in the next few days. It will not only test the country's defences in the western front but also be an attempt to display India's strengths in the air and sea. Nearly 50 years ago, in September, 1965, the Pakistan Navy bombarded Dwarka in an attempt to shift focus from the raging air war that was taking a heavy toll on its aircraft. On that day, no Indian Navy ship was in a position to respond. Though there was no damage to the Somnath Temple or a radar station at Dwarka, Pakistan continues to gloat over 'Op Dwarka'.
India's first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant is on its way to be delivered to the Navy in December, 2018, government said on Friday.
Undocked in June this year at Cochin Shipyard Limited, the construction of the first of the two planned Vikrant-class future aircraft carrier began in 2008 .
The Indian Navy is considering buying additional Scorpene submarines to top an earlier six-vessel order, Indian Navy Chief Adm. Robin Dhowan said at an annual news conference here Thursday.
Though he did not give any details on the number of additional French-made Scorpene diesel-electric attack submarines being considered, a senior Indian Navy official said, there is a requirement for three additional Scorpenes. A formal note to request the additional submarines has not been submitted to the Ministry of Defence.
The Navy's Scorpene project itself is behind schedule by more than four years.
Under the 2005 deal, the first submarine was to have been inducted in 2012 but now has been delayed until December 2016. Earlier, the Indian government had threatened to impose penalties if the submarines were not inducted on a schedule, with the first one to be inducted in August 2015 and the remaining five every six months following.
In 2011, then-Defence Minister A.K. Antony told the Indian Parliament that under the contract signed with MDL, the first submarine was scheduled to be delivered in December 2012, and thereafter one each year until December 2017.
The first French Scorpene submarine built by Mumbai-based Mazagon Docks Ltd. (MDL) under technology transfer from DCNS was launched in April 2015.
Indian Navy sources now say the last of the six Scorpenes will be delivered by 2022.
For the first time India has options when it comes to finding a partner to build a military nuclear asset. Besides Russia, ship builders from France and the US have started initial conversations with the defence ministry on participating in an Indian effort to build a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Russia has been the traditional ally of India when it comes to sensitive technology and strategic systems.
But a Navy plan for constructing six new nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) to patrol the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and beyond has prompted 'discussions' with the two western nations, sources familiar with the development told ET. The Cabinet Committee on Security had cleared Navy's proposal in February.
The head of the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier design and engineering office is set to meet his Indian counterparts later this month to discuss the design of India’s next carrier, he told USNI News last week.
Program Executive Officer for Aircraft Carriers Rear Adm. Tom Moore will lead a Navy contingent to work with the Indian navy on designing its next indigenous aircraft carrier program.
“Our two countries are working through a number of close relationships, and one of the things the Indians are interested in is learning more about aircraft carriers,” Moore told USNI News on Thursday.
“So I’m actually heading up a Navy contingent to work with the Indian navy on aircraft carrier technology to the point that we could help them with their desire to build an indigenous aircraft carrier over in the Indian navy.”
He characterized the talks as being in the formative stages, with the Indians still trying to determine what capabilities they’d want their carrier to have.
“We’ve got a series of meetings with them coming up, they are interested in obviously learning from us big picture stuff about how you start from a clean sheet of paper and what are the processes used to build a carrier,” Moore said.
“But they’re really in the process of figuring out, ‘how big do I want it to be, how many planes do I want it to carry,’ along those lines. So once we’ve had those conversations with them, we’ll certainly be happy to engage with them where it makes sense for us.”
Moore and his team will begin meeting with Indian navy officials next month, as the two countries have tightened their defense and non-defense relationships in the last several months.
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The U.S. government would support selling General Atomics' electromagnetic launching system for aircraft carriers, and other key technologies, to India, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer told Reuters on Friday.
Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall, who heads a joint U.S.-India defense trade and technology effort, said he was optimistic about the two countries' efforts to cooperate on a planned aircraft carrier for India.
"I'm optimistic about cooperating with them on that," Kendall told Reuters in an interview, when asked about the possibility of India acquiring the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) built by privately held General Atomics, which is based in San Diego, California.
"They’re going to have to make their own decision about what technology they want, but I don't see any fundamental obstacles to them acquiring some of our carrier technologies, if they want them," he said.
India wants to use state-of-the-art U.S. technology to boost the range and potency of a planned aircraft carrier, in a move that would deepen cooperation between both countries and counter China's military influence in the region.
General Atomics, which has also proposed selling the system to Brazil, says selling the system to foreign countries could help lower the cost of installing the system on the new Gerald R. Ford class of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers being built by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc.
The new system helps jets launch off a flat deck at a faster rate and with less fatigue to the aircraft.
The Indian Navy (IN) is fast-tracking plans to build its second, 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) in southern India.
Designated the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier-II (IAC-II) and likely to be named INS Vishal , the warship will take 10-12 years to build, according to naval officials.
Construction is expected to begin at CSL in 2018 after the IN commissions the 40,000-tonne carrier INS Vikrant following a five-year delay.
India has invited Japan to compete in the Indian Navy's (IN's) long-delayed INR500 billion (USD8.1 billion) Project 75I (India) requirement for six diesel-electric submarines with land attack and air independent propulsion (AIP) capabilities.
Official sources said India had recently forwarded a proposal to Tokyo asking it to consider participating in the Project 75I tender with its 4,200-tonne Soryu-class submarine.
The Soryu class is currently under evaluation by the Royal Australian Navy as a replacement for its six Collins-class boats.
India and the United States are likely to expedite during US President Barack Obama's visit discussions on joint production of electromagnetic system to smoothen takeoff and landing of fighter jets on board India's indigenously developed aircraft carrier.
Officials said India is keen to jointly develop Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) with the US for the aircraft carrier that is under production in Kochi.
Frank Kendall, the US undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics, who is arriving ahead of Obama, will discuss with his Indian counterparts the possibility of joint production of defence items including EMALS, officials said, adding there is a possibility that EMALS might be one of the items where chances of joint production are high.
