Defence and Security Alert Magazine (DSA) December 2017 Edition

150 The First and Only ISO 9001:2015 Certified Defence and Security Magazine in India

December 2017

The Only Magazine Available On The Intranet Of The Indian Air Force

Volume 9 issue 03

Economic Slowdown and its impact on Naval Expansion

Interview with Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba

PVSM, AVSM, ADC

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December 2017 Defence AND security alert

editor’s note

DSA is as much yours,

as it is ours!

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arachi, 4 December 1971, set the stage for Navy Day to become an annual event in India’s military and national calendar. For it was on that date and the attack on Karachi harbour which announced the arrival of the Indian Navy on the military scene. It wasn’t a support operation and it wasn’t a supply operation either. In fact, it was an independent assault operation that took Pakistan by surprise owing to the sheer audacity of its scale. Until then the Indian Navy had been restricted in its operational role to harbour protection or denial, but the 1971 Indo-Pak war changed its status.

Which doesn’t mean that the Indian Navy is now a service on par with the other two. Far from it, for it continues to be denied the attention and investment that it rightly deserves. It continues to lag behind its sister services in terms of the monies invested and long term vision plans. The Indian Navy is totally unlike the other services for it operates, well, beyond the horizon, in a literal and metaphorical sense.

Since it isn’t seen in the line

of duty, it doesn’t catch the attention of the nation that it deserves. And then its roles are such that they prove well nigh impossible to comprehend at the pedestrian level.

The ones that catch all the news space are the anti-piracy operations conducted off the Somalia coast. It is a catchy subject so it grabs attention, even if the citizens cannot see the operations, merely the line of villains arrested. This fits in nicely with the good versus evil narrative. But the Indian Navy is lot more than that. It has a significant military as well as diplomatic role and which it performs with aplomb, around the world.

In a real sense, the Indian Navy performs the greatest political – diplomatic outreach service for the country. It doesn’t appear so to the people since friendly port visits, distant search and rescue operations, transoceanic carriage of the tricolour, joint exercises and exchanges, are just some of its myriad tasks performed with great sophistication, globally.

December 2017

A lot more needs to be done, however. And for that to happen, the country needs to invest a lot more on its navy, in terms of manpower as well its all important hardware.

Naval training is already regarded as world class in many ways and its establishments match with those anywhere in the world. It is in the expansion of the fleet that a lot more needs to be done. Some naval equations are very simple even to the untrained. The most secure platform in a nuclearised environment is a nuclear powered submarine capable of launching intercontinental ballistic missiles. Making one, or the many that are needed by India, takes a lot of time and a lot of money. A long term vision for the oceans, complemented by an audacious budgetary plan, can make that happen. All that it requires is the will to take the decision. The Indian Navy deserves the decision.

Manvendra Singh

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publisher’s view

An ISO 9001:2015 Certified Magazine

Volume 9 | Issue 03 | December 2017 Chairman Shyam Sunder Publisher and ceo Pawan Agrawal President Urvashi J Agrawal Director Shishir Bhushan Editorial Editor-in-Chief Manvendra Singh Deputy Editor Diana Mehra Business Development General Manager Kavita Karki Copcom & Ops OSD Navjeet Sood Creative Senior Graphic Designers Alka Sharma Amit Kumar Gaur Representative (J&K) Salil Sharma Correspondent (Europe) Dominika Cosic Production Dilshad and Dabeer Webmaster Sundar Rawat IT Operations Sonia Shaw Amber Sharma Photographer Subhash Circulation and Distribution Prem Kumar Legal Advisor Deepak Gupta E-mail: (first name)@dsalert.org info: info@dsalert.org articles: articles@dsalert.org subscription: subscription@dsalert.org online edition: online@dsalert.org advertisement: advt@dsalert.org Editorial and Corporate Office Prabhat Prakashan Tower 4/19, Asaf Ali Road New Delhi-110002 (India) +91-011-23243999, 23287999, 9958382999 info@dsalert.org | www.dsalert.org Disclaimer

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Editor: Manvendra Singh

Maritime Bulwark

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ince time immemorial whenever man sought to find out what lay on the other side of the ocean cataclysmic events occurred. The New World was discovered; the United States of America created; the Bull (Edict) of Pope Alexander the Sixth divided South America between Spain and Portugal. Those eager to find India via the west route bumped into the Caribbean islands and they named them West Indies on realising their mistake. The Brits came eastwards and found the real India (where it had always been) and colonised it. No matter which direction one travelled it seemed that even then India was central to their endeavour. France and Portugal have left spoors of history on its shores.

Before this, Indian culture had already left its imprint on what is now known as Southeast Asia ranging from Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia in the near horizon to the “Indochina States” of Kampuchea (Cambodia), Laos and Vietnam bordering the Pacific Ocean as is evident in the ruins of the temples of the Angkor Wat genre and the living, vibrant performing arts in which the enactment of the Ramayana is a central theme. Now, in the twenty-first century the words of US military strategist Alfred Mahan have a familiar ring. He had said: ‘Whoever controls the Indian Ocean will dominate Asia, the destiny of the world will be decided on its waters.’ This is being vividly underscored by the current struggle for maritime influence in the region.

India which is surrounded by seas from three sides has the most preeminent position in the Indian Ocean littoral. Its long coastline leaves it vulnerable to infiltration by terrorists and smugglers as witnessed in two attacks on Mumbai. The nation has celebrated Navy Week to mark one of the most audacious operations executed by the Indian Navy with its attacks on Karachi harbour in 1971. We took the opportunity to interview the Chief of Indian Navy Admiral Sunil Lanba and Director General of Indian Coast Guard Organisation Rajendra Singh. I am sure you will appreciate the candour of their responses.

So happy reading, dear readers!

Jai Hind!

Pawan Agrawal

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December 2017 Defence AND security alert

contents

An ISO 9001:2015 Certified Magazine

Sailing Towards Transformation Pawan Agrawal, CEO & Publisher of DSA

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Genesis Of Underwater Force Of 21st Century Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh (Retd)

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Clear Projects In Pipeline Col KV Kuber (Retd)

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Indian Naval Submarine Arm’s Golden Jubilee Team DSA

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Sanctioned Acquisitions On Hold Ranjit B Rai

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PINAKA: A Glorious Work In Progress Team DSA

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Current Need Of The Hour Cecil Victor

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Aviation MRO In The Making Team DSA

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Brahmastra Of Sorts Diana Mehra

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December 2017

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interview

Sailing towards

transformation Chief of the Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral Sunil Lanba, PVSM, AVSM, ADC spoke to Pawan Agrawal, CEO & Publisher of Defence and Security Alert (DSA) about Navy’s upcoming ambitions and the ways to tackle with the issues. The CNS elaborates on the Navy’s commitment towards national security, strategic exercises and role of women in the Indian Navy Defence & Security Alert: What is the continuing level of commitment by the Indian Navy for indigenisation? What kind of challenges do you face from the indigenous research team?

Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) : The Indian Navy’s quest for selfreliance by developing systems within the country has been a well-ingrained belief system that the Navy has nurtured over several decades and worked hard to achieve. As a result of this conviction, the Navy is pursuing every available indigenisation opportunity to develop equipment and systems in the country. We are presently pursuing more than 100 projects with the Defence Research and Development Organisation. Several projects are underway under the ‘Make’ category to progress R&D and

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develop indigenous equipment and systems through domestic industry. The Govt of India has recently launched the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme to encourage R&D through MSMEs and other industries with the DRDO handholding.

The Navy has about 16 projects to be undertaken progressively by the TDF team of the DRDO. In addition, we have about 100 small projects which are being progressed by Indigenisation Units at Mumbai and Visakhapatnam for developing assemblies, subassemblies and small items to support the legacy systems on various ships and a few imported equipment on new platforms.

However, the Indian industry is yet to mature to be able to design, develop and integrate larger systems to meet the Navy’s requirements. This issue is further exacerbated by the requirement of

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

Chief of the Naval Staff, Indian Navy, Admiral Sunil Lanba, PVSM, AVSM, ADC

interview

substantial initial investments, long lead time and limited volume of demand, generally associated with Research and Development in the defence sector. The present industrial ecosystem, with such limitations, calls for a larger role by the GoI and the Navy for bringing synergy between various entities. Our efforts in this direction are slowly but steadily producing good results. The design capability of the domestic industry and academia in various pockets is also being harvested by several multinational OEMs who have set up their design houses in India and are sourcing design inputs from India for developing larger systems elsewhere in the world. I am hopeful that it is only a matter of time before our industry can meet all the major requirements of the Armed Forces completely on its own.

CNS: India’s ‘Look East’ and ‘Act East’ policies are important facets of India’s foreign policy matrix.

While the Government of India continues to work upon economic integration amongst the Asian neighbourhood, the prominence to defence cooperation, as an enabling instrument of ensuring long-term security and stability, has also been acknowledged in the draft ‘Vision Document 2030’ published by the NITI Aayog.

region are integral to the success of this strategy. Towards this, the Indian Navy has taken the lead in many significant Foreign Cooperation initiatives which are based on the four pillars of capacity building, capability enhancement, constructive engagement and collaborative efforts. As a result of these FC endeavours, the Indian Navy has emerged as the ‘first port of call’ for maritime security needs of several friendly nations in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). We will continue to remain constructively engaged with all like-minded friendly nations in the IOR and beyond to uphold the common cause of ensuring safe and secure seas for everyone.

The Indian Navy being one of the ‘Key Instruments’ of India’s ‘Act East’ policy, its activities in this

DSA: The Indian Navy keeps seeking to undergo some allround transformation in terms

DSA: You have always highlighted the Navy’s strong ‘Act East’ focus. How is the Indian Navy meeting its goals?

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of its capability, capacity, communication, strategy, training, etc how far have we come to achieving the above stated to become a selfsufficient blue water force?

CNS: The Indian Navy presently has a force level of 139 ships and submarines, and 224 aircraft for ensuring maritime security in our areas of maritime interest. The force levels will gradually increase to ensure that adequate assets, both in terms of capacity and capability, are available to fulfill the Navy’s mandate. With more than 30 ships and submarines under construction in various shipyards, the Indian Navy is growing steadily and we aim to become a 200 ship Navy by the end of the next decade. The ongoing modernisation aims to enhance our capabilities for accomplishing a

P8I and MiG 29K aircraft, Deep Submergence Rescue Vessels (DSRV) etc are some examples in this regard. Joint developments pursued earlier in projects like BrahMos and MRSAM would now be taken forward to the next level through the SP Model. Under this policy, the Navy is looking to get submarines and shipborne helicopters constructed in India.

We are in the process of identifying the foreign collaborators for these projects. The aim is to reduce our import dependency as much as feasible. The Government’s initiatives to bolster domestic defence industry would certainly go a long way in realising this aim.

Chief of Naval Staff, Indian Navy, Admiral Sunil Lanba, PVSM, AVSM, ADC with Pawan Agrawal, CEO & Publisher

range of missions across the entire spectrum of maritime threats and challenges. These efforts towards force accretion are adequately supported by concurrent focus on training, maintenance and logistics, which are critical to the success of every operation at sea.

The training methodology and content is periodically updated to keep pace with the requirements of a modern Navy. The Indian Navy today is a highly networked force, supported by a robust communication backbone. It is indeed a matter of pride that most of the communication and combat management systems on our newer platforms are completely indigenous. The transformation efforts would continue to lay equal focus on all these issues simultaneously to maintain the high combat efficiency of the Indian Navy.

DSA: What are some of the latest procurement products we are expecting and from which countries?

CNS: The Indian Navy has made conscious efforts to pursue the path of indigenisation. Pathbreaking initiatives such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘Strategic Partnership (SP) Model’ have further bolstered the Navy’s resolve in this pursuit.

As a result, majority of our procurements, be it large ships or smaller equipment, are being sourced through Defence PSUs or other Indian OEMs. However, we must understand the limitations of domestic expertise in some niche areas such as high-end naval weapon systems, aircraft, etc. Therefore, to sustain our combat capability, we may resort to the import option in certain cases. Procurement of

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DSA: How do you plan to address shortage of personnel and also attain gender parity by inducting women officers in combat roles?

CNS: Shortage of personnel is being addressed by consistent and proactive efforts to attract the best amongst the nation’s youth for joining the Services.

Our advertising campaign, ‘Ocean of Opportunities’, is an apt reflection of what the Navy has on offer. The intention is to make the youth of the country aware of the unique nature of the Service and the opportunities that it offers, so that they could make an informed choice of their career.

The response to this campaign has been very heartening. The Indian Navy is also actively using digital media platforms like Facebook and Twitter as well as the Indian Navy website for dissemination of public interest information. Internetbased initiatives, in particular,

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interview

have found a resonant connect with the youth of the nation.

Within the Service, the Navy has been committed to the cause of gender parity. Women officers are presently being inducted into eight Branches and Cadres. These include Education, Law, Logistics, Air Traffic Control (ATC), Naval Constructor (NC), observers, pilots and Naval Armament Inspectorate (NAI). In fact, the women pilots and observers on our Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft are actually performing combat roles. In all these cadres, there is complete gender parity in terms of induction, training, career progression as well as consideration for grant of Permanent Commission.

DSA: What roles have forums like the IONS (Indian Ocean Naval Symposium) and joint exercises like the Malabar Navy Exercise, played in influencing the geostrategic contours of India?

CNS: Threats in the Maritime domain manifest as transnational challenges. Countering these threats, therefore, requires several agencies within and outside the country to work in close coordination with each other. The Indian Navy has played a proactive and responsible role towards maintaining peace and stability in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Facilitating a constructive dialogue is often the primary enabler for garnering greater international cooperation.

Towards construct

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this, a maritime linking the Indian

Ocean littorals, named the ‘Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS)’, was initiated in 2008. This was viewed by the IOR littorals as an important milestone in maritime security cooperation within the IOR. Since its inception, the IONS has contributed towards providing a platform for all IOR littoral navies to regularly discuss issues that bear upon regional maritime security.

The IONS has membership of 23 littoral navies and nine observers, who work together to evolve a common set of regional maritime security strategies.

This body progresses domain specific work by forming the IONS Working Groups (IWG).

Currently, there are three such IWGs working in the fields of Maritime Security, Information Sharing and ‘Interoperability and HADR’. Towards the end of this year, Bangladesh­­­-the current Chair of IONS, would be hosting a joint SAR exercise in the Bay of Bengal. In order to narrow down the focus on certain region specific issues, the Indian Navy has also initiated another regional maritime construct named the ‘Goa Maritime Conclave (GMC)’. The inaugural conclave, held last month, was attended by representatives of 10 navies of South and South East IOR littorals.

As regards, the Malabar series of exercises, the Indian Navy and the USN have been exercising together since 1992, with an aim to enhance interoperability and learn from each other’s experiences. With Japan joining the Malabar series of exercises as a regular participant

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since 2015, we aim to broaden the scale and scope of this exercise in terms of the specific evolutions undertaken by participating ships, submarines and aircraft. The experience gained during such exercises is equally beneficial to all the participants.

DSA: What is your message to the women of the all-women Indian Naval Crew who is out to circumnavigate the world?

CNS: Our best wishes are with the brave young women who have embarked on the challenging feat of circumnavigating the globe. The women onboard Tarini represent not just the Indian Navy, but the entire country. Their mission would be a testimony to the strength and courage of Indian women. In the past few years, these officers have undergone rigorous training and taken part in many sailing missions, within and outside the country, which have helped them to emerge as skilled seafarers who can take on any challenge associated with ocean sailing. With thorough dedication, professionalism and hard work, they have taken up the challenge of achieving a historical and unparalleled milestone. By successfully completing this voyage, they will join an illustrious list of Indian women, whose accomplishments in diverse fields, have contributed immensely to the discourse on women’s empowerment in India as well as abroad. I am confident that they will not only do the Navy and the country proud but will also be a source of inspiration to our future generations.

ode to the Indian submarine CONVENTIONAL AND NUKE

Genesis of Underwater Force Of 21st Century

Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh PVSM, AVSM, NM (Retd) The writer held important 2-star rank appointments of Flag Officer Submarines, ACNS (Submarines), Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet and after promotion to 3-star rank he served as DG Indian Coast Guard, C-in-C Andaman and Nicobar Command and finally FOC-in-C Eastern Naval Command. He retired in 2007.

Apart from the all important President’s Colour presentation ceremony, another important function is the seminar on submarine building which will have speakers from India and many submarine building nations. The Indian Navy is today not only a builders navy, but also a nuclear navy, with a potent Submarine Arm, which actively contributes to the nation’s strategic triad deterrence

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he President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Armed Forces, will present the President’s Colours to the Submarine Arm of the Indian Navy on 8 December 2017 at Vishakapatnam, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of this silent underwater arm.

This will be great occasion for veteran submariners and their families from yesteryears, to meet each other and interact with the youngsters who serve

Colours presentation ceremony at the Tula Suvorov Military Academy, Russia

December 2017

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ode to the Indian submarine CONVENTIONAL AND NUKE

in conventional and nuclear submarines of today, and also operate India’s strategic second nuclear strike SSBNs. At the outset, even though this article is a personal nostalgic trip down memory lane, I wish to place on record, the great work done by our submarine pioneers who laid very solid foundations for our conventional and nuclear submarine force and also those pioneer designers and builders involved in building our conventional and nuclear home built submarines, and their associated systems, sub-

Shark) at Riga (then part of former USSR, and now capital of modern day Latvia). The INS Kalvari, was a Foxtrot (project 641) class submarine, and was later followed by seven more ‘Foxtrots’. All these venerable submarines rendered yeomen service and three of them were at sea on patrol (Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal) during the 1971 Indo-Pak war and all have now been decommissioned.

Subsequently, commencing 1986, the Indian Navy inducted 10 Soviet-Russian Kilo class (one of these, INS Sindhurakshak, tragically sank in Mumbai

launched anti-ship missiles).

In 2008, India’s first home built SSBN (INS Arihant) was launched and media reports indicated that it was commissioned in 2016.

Media reports now indicate that the first of six, indigenously built French Scorpene subs (INS Kalvari) is expected to be commissioned by NovemberDecember 2017, while the second indigenously built Scorpene (INS Khanderi) has commenced sea trials. Media speculation also abounds about the expected launch in NovemberDecember of India’s second home built nuclear-powered ballistic missile carrying submarine (INS Aridhaman).

Transition Years

systems, weapons and sensors.

And last but not the least, the ongoing growth of the largely home built submarine force of the twenty first century, would not have been possible without the vision, foresight and leadership of successive Chiefs of Naval Staff.

First The Foxtrots History records, that on 8 December 1967, the Indian tricolour was hoisted on our first submarine, the INS Kalvari (Tiger

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harbour on 14 August 2013 due to a massive explosion) and four German SSK subs (the last two of these, INS Shalki and INS Shankul, were built in India), and between 1988-1991 also operated a Soviet Charlie class SSGN on a three year lease SS denotes submarine, the G denotes guided missile and the N denotes that the submarine is nuclear-powered. (the nuclear powered INS Chakra, which carried our first underwater

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

I wrote this article, in early October 2017, as someone who was lucky enough to have been a part of the Indian Submarine Arm since joining in 1971, as the commissioning crew at Riga, Latvia), in 1973, of our fifth Foxtrot sub INS Vela (commanded

by Lt Cdr JMS Sodhi, who later retired as Rear Admiral and was involved in the selection and induction of the German SSK-submarine or submarine killer subs). Subsequently, I was trained in Vladivostok for 30 months (1983-86) for our first leased SSGN (INS Chakra) and in 1987, I served as Chief Staff Officer to our newly created first FOSM or Flag Officer Submarines (Rear Admiral A Auditto) at Vishakapatnam – a great amount of important work was done by the FOSM and his successors with regard to submarine safety, submarine

training, maintenance and operating schedules, operational readiness inspections etc. Next year, in 1988, I was appointed as the first Captain SM (11) of the newly formed 11th Submarine Squadron) comprising our first four Kilo class subs at Vishakapatnam, followed by duties of the newly created Commodore Submarines (East) or COMSUB (East) which had both the 11th and 8th Submarine Squadrons (comprising Kilo and Foxtrot subs and also command of the submarine base INS Virbahu at Vishakapatnam (in 1997, COMSUB was re-designated as COMCOS or Commodore Commanding Submarines).

Land-attack Capabilities In 1996, after promotion to 2 star rank, as the first ACNS (Submarines) at NHQ (with double hat of Flag Officer Submarines) I was directly involved in the modernisation of our Kilo and SSK subs, induction of the Akula SSN

(inducted in 2012 as INS Chakra, on 10 year lease), induction of the Klub tube launched cruise missiles (both 3M-54E anti-ship and 3M-14E land attack types), was also involved from Naval headquarters in the ATV project and finally was the author of the government approved ‘30 year submarine building plan’ (which

Korean 209 type submarine, as part of the then CNS (Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat) delegation visits to Japan and South Korea, and later in December 1997, I dived in a 500 ton Israeli submarine for a brief one day sortie in the Mediterranean.

In 1998, on an official visit to France as ACNS (Submarines),

Visits to the indigenous ATV project sites, where...professionals from the Indian Navy, DRDO, Public and Private Sectors, toiled to build our first SSBN, the INS Arihant was the brainchild of the then CNS Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat).

In between all this, I was also fortunate to have visited submarines and a submarine simulator in 1995 in Germany as part of the then CNS (Admiral V. Shekahawat) delegation. In June 1997, I visited a Japanese Submarine (Sachishio) and a Japanese submarine simulator, followed by a visit to a South

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I visited a French Agosta class diesel sub and also a French Rubis class SSN. In 2005, as a three star DG Indian Coast, I was invited by the then US Navy CNO (Admiral M. Mullen) to visit a Los Angeles class SSN, while enroute to participate in the Sea Power Symposium in US Naval War College. Post retirement, I delivered the keynote speech in 2009, at the American Annual

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ode to the Indian submarine CONVENTIONAL AND NUKE

Naval Submarine League Symposium, at Washington. And now as a 70-year-old veteran, I look forward to attending the Submarine Golden Jubilee Celebrations at Vishakapatnam (5 to 9 December 2017) and witnessing the President’s Colours presentation ceremony.

Second ‘Chakra’ Lease Having been trained extensively in the former USSR at Vladivostok for over 30 months (Sep 1983 to April 1986) on the Indian Navy’s first nuclear submarine, the Project 670, ‘Charlie Class’ SSGN (later commissioned as INS Chakra for a three-year lease from January 1988 to January 1991), it was my privilege to be involved, from ‘day one’ in the induction of our Akula Class SSN of Project 971 (again named INS Chakra, which was finally inducted on a 10-year lease, wef 2012). I must also place on record, the extremely thorough nuclear submarine training imparted to us by very experienced, professional, dedicated Soviet submariners, who ensured that we had an appropriate foundation of nuclear physics, reactor physics, radiation safety and of course, specific details of the construction and systems of the ‘Charlie Class’, Project 670 SSGN. The class room theory was re-enforced by weekly oral exams every Monday (which ensured that we studied on Sundays, after doing the mandatory domestic chores and partying on Saturdays), and visits to the submarine, various working and static models, simulators and finally a year at sea. All this stood

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us in good stead, when we planned for the nuclear submarine navy of the future. I must also place on record the keen interest shown on our indigenous Advanced

I was directly involved in the modernisation of our Kilo and SSK subs, induction of the Akula SSN as INS Chakra, and induction of the Klub tube launched cruise missiles Technology (ATV) project by the then CNS Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, and his VCNS Vice Admiral PJ Jacob, and I also had the good fortune to accompany both of them, separately, on visits to the indigenous ATV project sites, where countless, dedicated and highly motivated professionals from the Indian Navy, DRDO, Public and Private Sectors, toiled to build our first SSBN, the INS Arihant, about which enough data is available on the web and hence is being mentioned only briefly here.

30-year Plan Further, only distantly related to this article, but mentioned here to show the backing and foresight of successive CNSs and VCNSs, in 1996, Admiral Bhagwat, directed me to put up a case for the ‘30

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Year Indigenous Conventional Submarine Plan’ which was approved by the Government in 1999 (when Admiral Sushil Kumar was CNS and received his full backing), and also to take up the modernisation of the SSK and 877 EKM submarines. The induction of Klub 3M-54E, anti ship TLM missiles in the new Kilo class (contract for two new Kilos was signed in 1998) was due to the backing of the then VCNS and CNS. Similarly, the later induction of Klub 3M-14E, land attack TLM, was cleared in 2002, by the then VCNS, who shortly thereafter became CNS (Admiral Madhvendra Singh).

I recollect, that it was on New Year eve, 31 December 1997, that I (then as a Rear Admiral holding the twin hats of Flag Officer Submarines and also Assistant Chief of Naval Staff Submarines) was abroad on an official visit, when I received a telephone call that the than Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, desired that I attend an important meeting with him immediately on return to India. A couple of days later, I landed at Delhi airport, changed into uniform in the car while being driven to the CNS office, and then met our CNS along with the new Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Kureodov, who had recently been promoted to four star rank, by superseding many seniors, and had been given a nine year tenure as head of the Russian Navy. This was the genesis of the new Chakra (Akula) SSN project. Over the next few years, I was to meet the very friendly, young and jovial Admiral

Shtil – Nanuchka III class Guided Missile Corvette (Russia)

Kureodev, on a few occasions in Moscow , when I was part of our NHQ team, accompanying the CNS or VCNS. A few months later, in the early 1998, I accompanied the then Vice Chief of Naval Staff (Vice Admiral PJ Jacob) to Russia and made my first visit to this new SSN at Murmansk (after which we also had an extensive tour of the aircraft carrier Gorshkov, later to be extensively modified, modernised and commissioned into the Indian Navy, as INS Vikramaditya in 2013). My first and lasting impressions of the Akula SSN, after a briefing on the jetty, followed by a ‘walk around’ the Project 971 SSN, was that it was almost twice the tonnage of the ‘old Chakra’ and was very fast, silent and deep diving SSN, with a very impressive capabilty against enemy ships, submarines and shore targets-no wonder, even today the US Navy respects the very silent Akula class SSN. As an aside, I may mention, that, during a visit to the aircraft carrier Gorshkov the VCNS insisted on checking out the ship thoroughly

and we went right down to the bilges, and the climb back up numerous decks and ladders, was truly exhausting, and I think we all, being fifty years and older, heaved a sigh of relief when we reached the flight deck. A few months later I accompanied the then CNS (Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat) to the same project Akula SSN.

Visits To Original Manufacturers During this visit, the CNS was received by the C-in-C Northern Fleet (a submariner, whose two younger brothers were also then in command of submarines), on the very powerful 19,000 ton nuclear powered battle cruiser ‘Peter the Great’ with a guard of honour, a walk around on the mighty ship, followed by a lunch. Subsequently, in 1999, I accompanied the then CNS (Admiral Sushil Kumar) for another visit to this SSN project (and a similar reception with guard of honour and lunch on board ‘Peter the Great’). The final decision of course rested with the Government of India but I must add that all succeeding Indian Navy Chiefs of Naval Staff supported this project.

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During this visit, I remember, the C-in-C Northern Fleet, humorously explaining in Russian, how the Northern Fleet was the most powerful among the seven Russian Fleets. In my younger years, having sailed with units of the Baltic and Pacific fleets, I must agree with the Russian C-in-C Northern Fleet, given the allocation of SSNs, SSBNs and nuclear powered battle cruisers, under his command, at a time when the once mighty Soviet Navy was in decline, in its new avatar as the Russian Navy.

Most of us attending the Submarine Arm Golden Jubilee Celebrations, are acutely aware that this is a unique once in a life time event, where the past meets the present and the future. Apart from the all important President’s Colour presentation ceremony, another important function is the seminar on submarine building which will have speakers from India and many submarine building nations. The Indian Navy is today not only a builders navy, but also a nuclear navy, with a potent Submarine Arm, which actively contributes to the nation’s strategic triad deterrence.

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Chinese military modernisation IMPACT ON INDIA

Clear Projects In Pipeline

We are at a cusp of a Defence Industrial Revolution, with the more friendly Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP 2016), the implementation of Strategic Partnerships and a number of MAKE programmes on the anvil, the government will do well to put into action all of the above programmes to enable them to fructify by 2020

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he dragon smiles with a pinch all around.

The conclusion of the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CCP) has thrown up a new dimension in the geopolitics of the region. Mao’s legacy is history, so it seemed after his enigmatic portrait was

replaced by the and only towering visage, Xi Jinping. Selection of a 200-member Central Committee, a 25-member politburo and an Apex Politburo Standing Committee; having just five to nine most powerful party leaders is the hallmark of the event at the Great Hall of the People. There are no surprises here, Xi Jinping will be

Xi Jinping has ordered China’s Army to be combat-ready

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December 2017 ANDAND security alert December 2017Defence Defence security alert

central to all and central to the central leadership, that’s how it works, more work behind the curtain than what is seen and heard.

New World Order Welcome to the emerging new world order. Trump and Modi leading the two largest democracies of the world, Abe returned to power to institutionalise the reforms he has conceived and worked for, Xi returned with a larger than life enigma and we have Kim Jong Un along with leaders like Kim to provide for the balance of geopolitics. What are the major implications for the largest democracy in the shadow of these developments and how must we position ourselves in this new world order?

Xi has emphasised that the People’s Liberation Army is vital for the party and hence, a need to keep them close to himself, well

it is no secret that Xi’s spouse is a serving Major General in the PLA. The idea is to have an expert system and yet retain a complete control over them. The Chinese Communist Party now infiltrates all organs of governance and corporate. In an effort to woo the PLA, People’s Liberation Army Navy, People’s Liberation Army Air Force, rocket forces and others, the underlying emphasis would be on modernisation of the Armed Forces, to keep them loyal and ready.

‘No-contact’ War The thrust of the PLA’s modernisation is based on the concept of non-contact wars which rely on psychological operations that compel the enemy into submission without an actual military engagement.

An effort in the reorganisation of the PLAAF has witnessed a flattening of the apex structure

December 2017

Col KV Kuber (Retd) The writer is an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy and the Technical Staff College. He has specialised in Electronic Warfare. Commanded an Electronic Warfare Regiment in operations and has conducted EW operations. He has founded and established the DOFA and was the chief architect of the offset policy since its inception in 2005. He has been an Adviser with the National Small Industries Corporation and played a key role in bringing MSMEs into the mainstream defence business, through NSIC. Presently, he is an Adviser with the DRDO for Technology Acquisitions.

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Chinese military modernisation IMPACT ON INDIA

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December 2017 Defence AND security alert

with Xi calling all the shots, he is known to be present in the Military Operations Planning Room and in direct conversation with the theatre commanders. The concept adopted is a limited war under Informed conditions; smaller military objective with major political connotations. Information Warfare, Electronic Warfare and Surveillance are integrated and applied as a single homogenous entity. While the 21 Group Armies in the 1990s have been reduced to just 13 Group Armies today, the quality of recruitment as well as arms and equipment has improved considerably. They train in an exclusive area of about 10,000 sq km, a unique and tough concept indeed.

The PLAN intends to incorporate

India’s air-toair refuelling capability has been put on the back-burner and it needs to be revived 65 Destroyers and Frigates, of which they have 21 Destroyers, 35 Frigates, 20 Corvettes and notably 56 amphibious ships.

They are progressing towards a bluewater Navy as they consistently increase their tonnage and can meet a wide range of operations. The aircraft carrier capability is equally large. Aircraft carriers can be bought off the shelf or for that matter a Strike Corps

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is not as much as a problem as it is to deploy them, train them to become battle worthy. Their combat capability has increased since the modernisation drive began in 2014.

While China is racing ahead in its drive to modernisation, we have not even been good spectators.

China’s new round of modernisation of its Armed Forces began in 2010 indicating major progress in 2020 and to fight and win wars in the mid 21st century. They would keep talking and keep nibbling, confusing the world and yet eating into real estate on ground, at sea and in the air. A larger emphasis is on Information Warfare, Electronic Warfare and ensuring information dominance. Their foray into Space is admirable, with

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Chinese military modernisation IMPACT ON INDIA

the military (PLA SSF) in complete control of all Space programmes and IW. They have 181 satellites in orbit from a meagre 10 (in 2000). What is noteworthy is the importance given to Cyber W and IW since Xi Jingping heads the Centre for Cyber Space Affairs.

Investment in skill development is note-worthy with a demand of 1.2 million work force by 2020 from a present demand of 7,00,000 (of which the country is able to field only 30,000 as on today.

Where Are We? Acquisition of the Rafales from Dassault Aviation of France has brought about a sense of ascendency in the might of the Indian Air Force, parity in capability was always in the favour of the IAF. Additional Rafales, the ongoing discussion needs to be taken to a logical conclusion, thus arming the IAF with a capability to set the Chinese thinking. Our military balance is more equal due to the Sukhoi SU MKI and now the Rafales.

Acquisition of the single engine aircraft, is another important milestone that would set parity at a more equal level, both in quality and quantity. Gripen E next generation, is a natural choice given the advanced technology incorporated and the stateof-the-art features. Aerospace

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industry in India is set to grow to levels never seen before. The US would be happy with this choice for the important part of engines and few other systems belong to them. Single engine aircraft will also help assist the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) programme in stealth capability, while expediting its development.

In an effort to woo the PLA, PLAN, PLAAF, rocket forces and others, the underlying emphasis would be on modernisation Air to air refuelling capability has been put on the back-burner, and it needs to be revived.

Anti-submarine Warfare Advanced US technologies incorporated in the Predators and Avengers would integrate such capabilities both in terms of passive and active

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

intervention (when required). This would endeavour to enhance our IW capabilities in the subcontinent. Cooperation with the US for being a part of the “Fish Hook�, the improved sound surveillance system as also the General Dynamics developed DRAPES (Deep Reliable Acoustic Path Exploitation System), to get reliable information on the movement of submarines in our area of interest. As Russia, and especially China, have developed larger and more advanced submarine fleets, the US Navy has had to re-learn old Cold War antisubmarine warfare competencies while developing new capabilities to tackle more challenging modern submarine technology. Using cueing data from those platforms, improved local anti-submarine assets like the P-8I Poseidon submarine hunter aircraft (ASW capabilities) and surface combatants with new, improved towed sonar arrays of their own, like the Multi-Function Towed Array, can then close on a target, and track or engage it as needed.

The use of UAVs in tandem is a force multiplier.

The acquisition of A-330 based AWACS is a long pending programme, the government may like to pursue to achieve the over-arching capability in IW and command and control of the areas

of interest. This will be in sync with the other programmes that are in the pipeline In addition, Amphibious aircraft from Japan is an essential pre-requisite to project force in areas of interest, besides enhancing maritime amphibious capability both at sea and across the Brahmaputra.

Capitalising on the progress made in the Indigenous EW Programme, it is a neighbourhood call to enhance capabilities in EW and IW, incorporating all facets of IW. Information Ascendancy is a battle wining factor. If the Chinese had a Sun Tzu, we have a Chanakya Niti. The greatest recorded war in history, the Kurukshetra war, is replete with examples of Information Warfare in aid of the greatest of Army Commanders ever on a battlefield. Our leadership needs a lesson or two from the Bhagwat Gita, to improve upon IW, EW, Psychological Warfare, Cyber W

and create a potent force to deal with Information and cyber.

Does a requirement exist for us to re-evaluate our capabilities in IW and space and initiate an effort to integrate the capabilities for a national benefit and not relegate it to a specific service, to create and enhance national capability?

The SSBN capabilities of China are not much to talk about and our own Prithvi has more than matching capability and Nirbhay successfully tested for more than 1000 km range; with the steady progress in the IMDGP, we would retain the leadership position in the subcontinent. In the application of force, we would retain a more than equal capability.

Is There More We Can Do? Yes, much more, but then, we may like to address the programmes that have been listed above, they are already in the pipeline. The

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programmes in the pipeline will provide us with a Airborne EW capability duly integrated with UAVs, UAS, shipborne sensors, ground based EW capabilities and an ascendancy in IW. This is an essential pre-requisite for launching of operations.

We are at a cusp of a Defence Industrial Revolution, with the more friendly Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP 2016), the implementation of Strategic Partnerships and a number of MAKE programmes on the anvil, the government will do well to put into action all of the above programmes to enable them to fructify by 2020.

We as a nation have little choice but to actively speed up modernisation for the Indian Armed Forces. Let the Armed Forces guard the nation effectively and let the nation equip the Armed Forces efficiently.

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interview

Indian Naval submarine arm’s Golden Jubilee

On the eve of Submarine day, Vice Admiral Srikant, AVSM – Inspector General Nuclear Submarines (IGNS) speaks to Defence and Security Alert (DSA). The Golden Jubilee of the Indian Naval Submarines Arm will mark newer targets and strategies for the submariners of india

Defence & Security Alert: What words will best sum up the golden history of the Indian Naval Submarine Arm as we celebrate its Golden Jubilee?

Inspector General Nuclear Submarines (IGNS): The Navy is celebrating Golden Jubilee of inception of its Submarine Arm this year. The undersea warfare saga of the Indian Navy stated on 8th December 1967 with the Tricolour being unfurled onboard a state-of-the-art Foxtrot Class submarine at Riga – a Soviet Naval Base in present-day Latvia.

Within three years of inception, the Submarine Arm saw combat in the 1971 Indo-Pak War, where our submarines were deployed

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along with other frontline Naval Units in seriously degrading the adversary’s latitude of action. Through the 1970s and 80s, the Submarine Arm expanded greatly in capacity and capability. The latest conventional submarines were acquired from two independent sources and we also had our tryst with nuclear propulsion with the lease of a Charlie Class nuclear propelled submarine.

In keeping with the maxim – ‘first to deploy, last to return’, our submarines were mobilised along with other naval forces during the Kargil conflict and Op Parakram as well.

While the Submarine Arm was growing in conventional

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terms, the Navy recognised the strategic and tactical implications of developments in nuclear propulsion by foreign navies. This foresight and strategic wisdom saw the infusion of nuclear technology into our capabilities, affording us stealth, virtually unlimited endurance, reach, mobility and freedom of action. INS Chakra, on a 10-year lease from Russia is fully integrated into the Navy and the cumulative knowledge and proficiency in operating and maintaining a nuclear submarine will stand in good stead as we move on with the Indigenous SSN programme.

Thus, in the Submarine Arm’s Golden Jubilee Year, we are amidst an interesting mix of

Underwater harbour defence, surveillance system

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interview

the old and the new. We are on the threshold of commissioning the first indigenously constructed modern Scorpene Class conventional submarine.

In true naval tradition, this boat will be named INS Kalvari – the same name as that of our first submarine.

To commemorate the Golden Jubilee, the Year 2017 has been declared as the ‘Year of the Submarine Arm’.

Many programmes are in progress to memorialise the pioneers of our Submarine Arm; and honour the magnificent men who have kept the Submarine Arm running well over the last 50 years. The Golden Jubilee’s finale will be at Visakhapatnam on 8 December 17 when the Hon’ble President of India would present the prestigious honour of the ‘President’s Colour’ to the Indian Navy’s Submarine Arm. As our Submarine Arm grows from strength to strength, we prepare for a bright future and greater glory to continue the saga of the Indian Navy’s subsurface warfare and to keep a silent vigil on the maritime frontiers.

DSA: Scorpene class submarines are awaited to be inducted in 2017. What is the status on their trials so far?

IGNS: The Scorpene project for indigenous construction of six submarines has delivered its first submarine, Kalvari, to the Indian Navy in Sep 17 and this submarine will soon be commissioned into the navy.

Kalvari has been put through very

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rigorous tests and trial protocols and it has undertaken a combat missile firing and sensor trials prior its delivery. The second submarine is progressing with its sea trials and the third submarine is undertaking Harbour Acceptance Trials essential before its launch. The other three submarines are in various stages of construction and outfitting.

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DSA: How will you assess the performance of our indigenous industry as far as submarine manufacturing is concerned?

IGNS: The indigenous capability to construct submarines has slowly and steadily built up its expertise.

In-so-far as, the conventional submarines are concerned the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd has

made substantial progress and developed a pool of skilled manpower specialising in various aspects of construction of submarines ranging from welding, installation and starting to work and also test and trials of various equipment and systems. The Yard has also gained experience on various aspects of project management.

The Yard has also developed a pool of local vendors who are also participating in the Project.

The Indian Industry too has gained experience through development of Arihant and the licensed construction of the Shishumar Class and Scorpene Submarines.

However, there are still some gaps in availability of Technology to design and construct a truly indigenous conventional submarine. It is intended to fill these gaps in Technology through ToT under the Project 75(I) programme. It would be in India’s interest for a vibrant eco-system of indigenous industry to develop and support our subsequent submarine building Projects.

DSA: Safety has always been one of the main concerns of Naval operations inside a submarine. How far have we come in ensuring water-tight safety measures for the crew of the submarines?

IGNS: Submarines are designed to operate in one of the most hazardous and unforgiving mediums – the sea. They are very complex machines and require skilled manpower to operate and exploit their designed

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interview

capabilities. Submarining is a unique profession. Adherence to Standard Operating Procedures and prescribed safety standards is mandatory. ‘Dos and Don’ts’ of submarining are inviolable.

Our Submarine personnel are volunteers and among the best in the world who undergo a very rigorous selection and training process. The Navy has a dedicated three-tier Safety Organisation that routinely, and at times, randomly inspects safety aspects of ships and submarines. Additionally, a dedicated Submarine Work-up Team also functions under the

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aegis of Flag Officer Submarines – the Submarine Class Authority, to further strengthen the workup and safety inspection processes for submarines in particular.

DSA: Why is there a gender disparity in inducting men and women for operations inside submarines? When can women take more active role in naval operations inside submarines?

IGNS: The IN is committed to progressively expanding avenues open to women, towards maximising their participation in

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

the Service. Women officers are already there in Naval Aviation, Air Traffic Control, Naval Constructor, Logistics, Law and Education branches. Some of our warships under construction cater for deployment of women also. Though a challenge and dependent on many factors, as yet, the Navy is considering deploying women on board ships as older ships get deinducted and are replaced by newer ones. We may consider deploying women on board submarines in the future, based on experience gained from their deployment on board ships.

navy week BUILDER’S INSTITUTION

Sanctioned Acquisitions On Hold

Ranjit B Rai

The 21st century is predicted to be a predominantly Maritime Century and the centre of gravity of the world’s economy and power has shifted East with the rise of China and India. This places India geographically between the USA a super power with entrenched interests in the East which is now India’s defence partner, and the rising aggressive power China challenging it. Despite progress in India, the realisation has to still come among sea blind Indians that any disruption will be harmful to the world but catastrophic for India which lies in the centre of the trade routes

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he fourth of December is celebrated as Navy Day and Navy Week around it commemorates the day in 1971 when the Navy’s killer high speed Osa class boats, with Styx missiles struck Karachi in Op Trident and sank three ships. A simultaneous attack by Hunter aircraft operating out of Jamnagar in Gujarat the Indian Air Force missile struck the Kiamari oil tanks set the oil tanks on fire. The Navy repeated the feat five days later on the night of 8/9 December damaging the tanker PNS Dacca and two ships.

In the eastern sector, the Navy’s lone aircraft carrier INS Vikrant

with Seahawk and Alize aircraft with Fleet ships played havoc in East Pakistan, leading to the creation of Bangladesh, in co-operation with the Indian Air Force and Army. The Navy’s loss was INS Khukri on 9 December with 18 officers and 176 sailors off Diu to PNS Hangor, a Daphne submarine. Navy Week is a time of the year to put the spotlight on India’s small 67,000 strong Navy, recall a bit of its past and its position in the world.

Requirements In Navy week celebrations, the Navy normally looks back on achievements and announces new acquisitions which are on the anvil at various stages of

December 2017

The writer is the former Director of Naval Operations and Director of Naval Intelligence. He is also an author with his latest release being Future Indian Navy & Diary-2017 with PLA(N) PN & IRIN.

CNS Admiral Sunil Lanba assured the nation that the Navy has mission-based deployment so that our areas of interest can be kept under permanent surveillance

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navy week BUILDER’S INSTITUTION

sanction, but chances for any major announcement seem slim for the Navy this year.

The futuristic plans for four amphibious Landing Platform Dock (LPDs), eight Mine Counter Measure Vessels (MCMVs), six nuclear propelled (SSNs) and six conventional submarines in Project 75i and sixteen multi role helicopters and Indian Navy’s third 65,000 ton aircraft carrier Vishal being designed with US help in the Defence Technology Transfer Initiative (DTTI) have been put on hold.

Thirty-three ships and six Scorpene submarines are on order and under construction in Indian yards and two DSRV LR8 James Fisher submarine rescue vessels and four P8i Maritime Reconnaissance from Boeing will join the fleet of eight P8I’s operating from INS Rajali near Chennai. The new powerful P8is are fitted with US Mk 48 torpedoes and Mk 84 Harpoon missiles and replace the eight TU-142 retired in 2017. The first Scorpene with new Exocet SM-49 missiles and SUT–B older torpedoes as a stop gap is awaiting commissioning from Mazagon Dock Ltd possibly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

and foreign Naval attaches. All dignitaries invited are asked to witness the advances Navy has made in weapons and Command and Combat systems in stalls as near operational scenarios as can be shown ashore. It becomes an operational treat to see Navy in action as much of India’s future will depend on its maritime power and Blue Economy, and the nation needs to be sensitised to it and sea blindness needs to be removed with cataract type operations.

The 21st century is predicted to be a predominantly Maritime Century and the centre of gravity of the world’s economy and power has shifted East with the rise of China and India. This places India geographically between USA the super power with entrenched interests in the East which is now India’s defence partner, and the rising aggressive power China challenging it. Despite progress in India, the realisation has to still come among sea blind Indians that it is the one hundred and thirty five ship and two hundred strong aircraft of the Indian Navy, supported by the constabulary Coast Guard of India, that are the

Inter-activity The Navy Chief, Admiral Sunil Lanba for the second time will host India’s Supreme Commander as the Chief Guest and Vice President for an evening Navy Day reception in New Delhi and guests would include the Prime Minister and Defence Minister and important Ministers and bureaucrats, invitees from other services

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December 2017 Defence AND security alert

safe guardians of India’s maritime interests as the instruments of maritime power to maintain peace and stability for trade to flourish in the East, which is the main trade artery of the world for goods and energy. Any disruption will be harmful to the world but catastrophic for India which lies in the centre of the routes.

Ageing Fleet India has a coastline of 7516. 6 km (4,671 miles) and 2.1 million sq km of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to safeguard and exploit for its Blue Economy, which makes the physical task challenging and requires more ships and attack maritime planes and helicopters called “Sea Legs” to scour the seas for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA).

DSA reports that more than 35 per cent of ships and helicopters and 85 per cent of the submarines (15) are over twenty five years old and some have crossed their operational life are to prosecute a 21st century war.

Navies are capital intensive and need long term planning by its leaders with vision. India has always lacked platforms as Navy’s budgets were just 10 to 12 per cent of the Defence Budget which itself is well below 2 per cent of India’s GDP, but Navy’s allocations always waxed and have waned defying planning.

The need for a stronger Navy was felt but not swiftly acted upon after the 1971 war.

Main Supplier Disappears The Cold War saw Soviet Union on which Indian Navy depended for most of its ships and aircraft going through changes, and by 1990 Soviet Union collapsed. No major production facilities with foreign or Soviet help were set up and Navy brass saw the gap. The only successful HDW submarine programme painstakingly nurtured by the Navy at Mazagon Docks Ltd (MDSL) in the late 1980s to build two state-of-theart 1500-tonne conventional Shishumar submarines was closed down due to perceived

corruption in the 1990s. No conventional submarine has been built in India for the past twenty seven years. The first of six state-of-the-art Scorpene conventional submarines, Kalvari built at Mazagon Dock’s revived

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submarine yard will herald a new beginning soon.

It is to the credit of Indian Navy’s planners who began a ‘True make in India’ effort by energising its Naval Ship and Submarine design bureau (DGND) to produce designs and an internal R&D centre the Navy dubbed the Weapons Electronics Engineering Systems Establishment (WEESE) in small premises in New Delhi to support the designers with modern soft ware, ship upgrades in refits and communications. The WEESE also designed modems, space voice and data connectivity with GSAT 7 Satellite (Rukmani and Rukmini programmes) and security systems saving millions in foreign exchange. Today the forty five officers and ten men

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navy week BUILDER’S INSTITUTION

and women strong WEESE, is a leading cyber and space security agency for the Navy with a Critical Emergency Response Team (CERT) for cyber leaks, that the other services are following suit.

centric DGQA for quality control and ATV set up the large Defence Material Design Establishment (DMDE) at Hyderabad which tests naval machinery and certifies it before installing the equipment on ships.

Indira’s Legacy The Navy strengthened their Warship Production Superintendents (WPS) and Warship Overseeing Teams (WOTs) to assist and hold hands of PSU shipyards with retired Naval heads with domain awareness to build ships in India. Mrs Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister saw the future and pushed her Principal Secretary Parmeshwar Narayan Haksar (1913-98) and Dr Raja Ramana of the Atomic Energy and DRDO head Dr Arunachalam to set up the classified Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) in the early 1980s, a camouflage for making nuclear submarines under a Naval Admiral and trained naval officers at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Bombay that the Navy knew well as it guarded BARC from the seas.

The Navy was a leader to see the opportunity to encourage private industry and set up an Indigenisation Directorate and broke away from the Army-

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Manpower Enhancement Ashore the Navy has increased its intake at the Indian Naval

Chinese Gameplan Over the last decade, the possibility of conflicts of interests between the US and China have increased and manifested themselves over the South China Sea that China covets and blatantly disregards International UNCLOS (1982) laws and demands a right in the security architecture of the Indian Ocean

Mrs Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister saw the future set up the classified Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) in the early 1980s - a camouflage for making nuclear submarines Academy (INA) at Ezihimala near Cannanore which is being expanded and caters for BE Degrees for all officers. The naval base at Karwar Op Seabird has received sanction for Phase 2 with an additional jetty, an airfield and accommodation. A new submarine base is coming up as Op Varsha at Rambili South of congested Vishakapatman.

A Marine Commandos (Marcos) base has been set up at Bhimilipatnam and INS Baaz is Navy’s eastern-most base an airfield in the Nicobars next to the Malacca Straits.

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Region with close relations with Pakistan and building and taking over the strategic port of Gwadar and planning a submarine base in Ormara. China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with power and rail and road facilities is connecting Xinjiang province of China to these two warm water ports with a US$ 50 billion budget.

The Navy realises that it is mandated to be the net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and has to deploy its frontline platforms including its lone

aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya with Mig-29K fighters from the East coast of Africa and the Gulf to the Malacca Straits and beyond to the Indo Pacific inked in a strategic interest agreement signed by Prime Minister Modi and President Obama in 2014 as its footprint. Admiral Sunil Lanba assured the nation when he publicly noted: “We have reached a consensus within the Navy to have mission based deployment so that our areas of interest can be kept under permanent surveillance.

We started off by having a ship deployed permanently in Andaman Sea and approaches to the Malacca straits. Then we have mission based deployments in the North Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf; the Northern part of Bay of Bengal and near Sri Lanka. We are also sending ships to the Lombok and Sunda

The need for a stronger Navy was felt but not swiftly acted upon after the 1971 war

from the wide range of options that the Navy offers to its government – while its versatility enables transposition of roles ranging from ‘military’ to ‘constabulary’ and from ‘diplomatic’ to ‘benign’, its attributes of reach, sustenance and poise in international waters enable power-projection in a calibrated manner.

straits. So the ingress and egress routes of Indian Ocean region are being kept under surveillance such that we have better maritime domain awareness.”

By virtue of its inherent attributes, Indian planners have been at pains to explain that naval power is generally self-contained not only to deal with security challenges across the maritime ‘spectrum of conflict’, but also for its government to achieve geo-strategic objectives beyond these, in peace. This stems

December 2017

Ladies’ Adventure As the Indian Navy appears to be getting ready for the task as it celebrates Navy Week 2017 and has the nation’s support, the INSV Tarini, with its team of six women officers is on her second long sailing feat with a stopover at Lyttleton, New Zealand. If good weather prevails in the area the crew continue sailing downwind round the world as they have crossed the halfway mark. Shan No Varunah to them!

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indigenous wonder WINNER AT KARGIL

PINAKA:

A Glorious Work In Progress The Pinaka multi-barrel rocket is, by now, a totally Indian product and represents the quintessence of the policy that intended that all products procured from abroad and manufactured under licence in India should in the first instance create a “self reliance” which nullifies the effect of embargoes and sanctions initiated by producer nations to impose their will on India. This state of “self reliance” was to be converted to total “self-sufficiency” through innovation and ”leapfrogging” technology

A

mong the very few weapon platforms in which the promised “leapfrog in technology” has actually taken place and the weapon is in service with the Army is the Pinaka multi barrel rocket launch system. It earned plaudits for its role in the liberation of Kargil from Pakistan Army occupation and made the Defence and

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Research Organisation justifiably proud of having upgraded a Russian weapon platform and brought India the “self-sufficiency” that was the primary intention of the indigenisation programme launched after the Chinese aggression of 1962.

A glance at the original weapon B-21 Grad-P bought from the now defunct Soviet Union (of

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

which the Russian Federation is the successor nation) shows the radical and drastic change that was wrought by Indian scientists to create the new weapon. For one, the calibre or width of the rockets was changed from 122 mm to 214 mm (8.4 inches) which gave it greater blast effect and greater destructive capacity per rocket. The configuration was changed from the 40 barrels (four banks of ten tubes) to two canisters containing six rockets each in double rows– twelve rockets. The weight of the warhead has been increased from 25 kg in the Grad-P to 250 kg in the Pinaka. The range has been increased to 45 km in the Pinaka Mark I to 75 km in the second version and 120 km in the third which is still under development.

The original Grad was described as a “free rocket over ground (FROG)” because there was no guidance mechanism involved to pinpoint a target. It was an “area weapon” that could wreak destruction on troop concentrations, soft vehicles and entrenchments over large areas in one salvo delivered within 40 seconds.

Self-sufficiency The Pinaka multi-barrel rocket is, by now, a totally Indian product and represents the quintessence of the policy that intended that all products procured from abroad and manufactured under licence in India should in the first instance create a self reliance which nullifies the effect of embargoes and sanctions imposed by producer nations to impose their will on India.

The latest ‘Bofors’ - BAE and M&M’s FH77 B05

This state of “self reliance” was to be converted to total “selfsufficiency” through innovation and “leapfrogging” technology as one Scientific Adviser to the Minister of Defence put it several decades ago.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which was entrusted with the task has taken an unduly long time to reach the stage of takeoff from “self reliance” to “selfsufficiency”. Over the decades, therefore, the nation has had to import nearly all its requirement

December 2017

of military hardware cyclically every decade and we have attained the unenviable position of being the largest importer of arms and munitions.

The Pinaka gives hope. Its ascendancy came when India discovered that the Pakistan Army had infiltrated into a 60x10 km strip of the Kargil-Dras sector in Jammu and Kashmir soon after conducting its series of nuclear test in 1998. In the summer of 1999 the Indian Armed Forces took more than two months to dislodge the intruders and much

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indigenous wonder WINNER AT KARGIL

of that success depended on the performance of the Pinaka MBRL batteries that could be driven up to the base of the mountain range to be able to engage the Pakistanis entrenched on the crest overlooking the highway to Leh. The Indian Army gunners learned that the high-trajectory Bofors 155mm howitzer was not as effective as the direct-fire Pinaka and copied the flatter trajectory of the Pinaka to deadly effect.

The weapon is carried on a Tatra truck and one battery consists of six launchers with 72 rockets and the train includes six loaderreplenishment vehicles; three replenishment vehicles; two Command Post vehicles (one stand by) with a Fire Control computer, and the DIGICORA meteorological radar (for data on windspeed and temperature which affects the trajectory of a missile). A battery of six launchers can unleash the 72 rockets in a ripple and inflict damage to an area of one square kilometre of the battlefield.

Public-Private Partnership In the indigenisation of these

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We also need to re-learn the other lesson from Kargil – we ran out of ammunition for the Bofors 155 mm howitzer ancilliary equipment that several private sector industrial houses have contributed immensely, the Armament Research and Development Establishment – a Pune-based DRDO laboratory – is leading the development of the system and every added nuance to the weapon. Tata Power SED, Larsen & Toubro and Ordnance Factories Board entities share in the production of the whole system. The Pinaka thus has the much-needed flavour of the public-private partnership that is expected to contribute to the transition from a totally lopsided arrangement so far to a multifaceted military industrial complex. The private sector can contribute to subsystems that improve target acquisition

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

and thus, enhance combat performance of which the ability to shoot and scoot (as much as can be executed within the confines of mountainous terrain) is an important element. Others include cabin pressurisation for crew protection and microprocessor-based fully automatic position and fire controle consoles and night vision devices for driver and crew.

Meanwhile, the Pinaka is riding the crest of its popularity and orders of eight regiments have been placed with indications that a total of 20 would be required.

Each regiment has three batteries of six launchers each (total 18 launchers). Given an increase in its range up to 75 km in the second variant and the introduction of an element of guidance with the wrap-around inertial navigation system it is intended to ensure that every missile finds an enemy target especially gun and rocket emplacements and tank or mechanised armour concentrations and thus reduce wastage.

Pre-positioning India is plagued by the absence

of an adequate road network leading right up to the Line of Actual Control in the northern Himalayas. The situation is somewhat better in Jammu and Kashmir; and that is why the Pinaka system could prove itself during the Kargil crisis. In the context of the confrontation with China, it will become necessary to pre-locate the Pinakas in areas of likely ingress by Chinese troops instead of having to rush in the systems during a standoff. Pre-positioned Pinaka batteries can halt any Chinese invasion from standoff ranges of 40 and 75 km as well as disrupt Chinese lines of supplies in the eventuality of hostilities.

The Pinaka is amenable to prepositioning given the inbuilt following capabilities: Autonomous mode – The launcher is fully controlled by a fire control computer (FCC).

The microprocessor on the launcher automatically executes the commands received from the FCC, giving the operator the status of the system on displays and indicators.

Stand-alone mode – In this mode, the launcher is not linked to the FCC operator, and the operator at the console enters all the commands for laying of the launcher system and selection of firing parameters.

Remote mode – In this mode, a remote control unit carried outside the cabin up to a distance of about 200 m can be used to control the launcher system, the launcher site and to

unload the fired rocket pods from the launcher.

Manual mode – All launcher operations including laying of the system and firing are manually controlled. This mode is envisaged in the situations where the microprocessor fails or where there is no power to activate the microprocessorbased operator’s console.

Airborne Artillery With innovation high on the agenda, the DRDO could experiment with splitting the

Adequate Ammunition We also need to re-learn the other lesson from Kargil – we ran out of ammunition for the Bofors 155 mm howitzer. A former Army Chief, currently a member of the Cabinet, had written to the government of the time about the “hollowness” in the Indian military posture caused by a paucity of weapons platforms and munitions. It was reported some time ago that in 2014 as many as 5,000 rockets were being produced annually for the Pinaka system. Given that the Pinaka battery expends 72 rockets in 44

The Indian Army gunners learned that the high-trajectory Bofors 155mm howitzer was not as effective as the direct-fire Pinaka Pinaka canisters of six rockets each and reconfigure the soon to be inducted Chinook heavy lift helicopters to take one canister of six rockets in a centre line pylon (much as has been done on the Sukhoi 30MKI to incorporate a lightened BrahMos). This will overcome the handicap of lack of proper roads and enable the helicopter to use gaps in the Himalayas to make a surprise entre on the forward edge of battle on the other side of the massif occupied by the Chinese. It will have the effect of both shock and awe. It will also optimally utilise an indigenous weapons system that is both available in the numbers that we want but is also cheaper than any similar systems in the arms market.

December 2017

seconds, a regiment of 18 systems would unleash nearly 1,300 per minute. This will ensure that the whole annual production of 5,000 rockets would be finished in less than five minutes.

Of course, it could be argued that this figure of 5,000 annual production is intended for peacetime testing and practice.

Nonetheless it remains inadequate even for this if all the regiments are to be given a chance to fire their weapons and perfect the preloading and replenishment drills. There is obvious need to create and maintain large stockpiles of an ammunition that disappears in seconds if we are to maintain a credible conventional deterrent.

Defence AND security alert

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naval acquisitions FLYING BOATS

Current Need Of The Hour

The Indian Navy eventually made out a case for the induction of either 12 or 18 “flying boats”. For partly geo-strategic reasons – underpinning the emerging ties with Japan – as well as the acknowledged capabilities of the aircraft, India chose the Japanese ShinMaywa US-2i. India took the government-to-government route to cut the time taken by the global tender process and set aside qualms about “the single vendor” situation that could attract allegations of favouritism

T

he Government of India, the Ministry of Defence and the Indian Navy accepted the validity of a suggestion

34

made by the Defence and Security Alert (DSA) magazine in its first anniversary special issue in October 2010 that “flying boats” or amphibious aircraft would be

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

an imperative requirement given the swift-moving developments in the Indo-Pacific ocean spaces.

“Reaction time” was the underlying rationale for the suggestion.

At the time, India was using its frontline 6,200-ton guided missile destroyer INS Delhi to swat pirates that were harassing international commercial shipping in the vicinity of the chokepoint outside Aden in the Red Sea. There were occasions when a mothership used by pirates was detected and its position transmitted to ships in the vicinity but by the time they arrived, the mothership had disappeared in the vast ocean spaces. Pirates from the east African salient were emboldened to strike as close to the Indian seaboard as the Lakshadweep group of islands.

two onboard Sea King helicopters do play the role of catspaw but the speed of 210 kmph pales in the face of the vast expanse of the Arabian Sea on the western seaboard of the Indian peninsula and the Bay of Bengal on the east.

It was accepted as a necessity of something faster with a long range capable of covering the whole of the north Arabian Sea or large portions of the Arabian Sea and the Pacific Ocean connect where the Chinese threat has become palpable. The capability of landing and taking off from water bodies as well as land (amphibious) was seen as a desirable qualification and a force multiplier.

Cecil Victor The writer has covered all the wars with Pakistan as War Correspondent and reported from the conflict zones in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in South East Asia as well as from Afghanistan.

He is the author of “India: The Security Dilemma”.

Distances And Flying Time The INS Delhi has a range of 8,000 km but its top speed of 52 kmph can only be used in short bursts to catch up on an identified and visible (on radar) target. Its

In Negotiations With Japan The Indian Navy eventually made out a case for the induction of either 12 or 18 “flying boats”.

For partly geo-strategic reasons,

December 2017

Defence AND security alert

35

naval acquisitions FLYING BOATS

underpinning the emerging ties with Japan, as well as the acknowledged capabilities of the aircraft India chose the Japanese ShinMaywa US-2i. India took the government-to-government route to cut the time taken by the global tender process and set aside qualms about ‘the single vendor’ situation that could attract allegations of favouritism.

The first hurdle of cost appears to have been cleared by the reported decision of the Japanese company to cut the price per aircraft by as much as ten per cent.

Other hurdles exist. The Indian requirement is for two aircrafts to be delivered in fly-away condition and the rest be assembled in India beginning with ‘completely knocked down’ to incremental growth in indigenous content – the hallmark of licence-produced foreign hardware that has been an enduring feature in India’s effort to gain ‘self-reliance’ in the face of disruptions caused by geopolitical considerations of the suppliers as manifest in embargoes and sanctions for a variety of reasons or excuses.

The Japanese are insisting that the numbers are too small to make the licence-produced project economically viable. The Indian Navy’s assessment of its requirements for amphibious aircraft is based on its overall role as “sole security provider” for the whole of the Indian Ocean littoral. This is a huge jurisdiction extending from the northern chokepoints in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea outlet to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa

36

across to Malacca Straits and the ingress routes south of Indonesia in the Indian Ocean. It will not at all be surprising that at some point in the future, the Ministry of Defence will make out a case for the acquisition of more such aircraft because of ‘exigencies’.

That has been the trend in military acquisitions so far.

Utilise Intrinsic Advantages One worrying aspect of the deal is the pervasive use of the words “search and rescue operations”.

This seems to suggest that there is some limitation being imposed by the manufacturers to restrict the use of the aircraft only to look for and recover military casualties and civilian victims of natural disasters to the exclusion of other military roles that can be assigned to such an aircraft. This would be terribly unfortunate and the Government must clarify that, if acquired, the aircraft would be used for the entire spectrum of combat be it anti-piracy or contraband to commando operations and creation of beach-heads in faraway shores and islands.

In the context of Chinese claims that its deployment of nuclear armed submarines in the Indian Ocean littoral is intended to fight piracy that is endemic in the north Arabian Sea any such curtailment of roles of weapons platforms that India intends to acquire would be totally remiss.

Protecting Persian Gulf One example of the nature of swift changes in the Arabian Sea in particular is the opening

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

up of the India-built Chahbahar port by Iran in the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. The port was constructed with the specific purpose of undercutting or circumventing the embargo placed by Pakistan on the passage of goods to and from Afghanistan

by India using Pakistani territory for transit. It should be expected that such a gamechanger would be the prime target of Pakistan’s proxy terrorists operating out of its China-built port of Gwadar close to the border with Iran.

Before this, India had set up an air corridor using Iranian airspace for trade with Afghanistan and beyond to the landlocked Central Asian Republics of Tajikstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Hence, both the sea route as well as the air corridor are currently very valuable strategic assets which India will need to protect from Pakistan and China which are not averse to using

replenishment at sea of food, water, fuel etc as well as casualty or medical evacuation and, rest and recreation requirements for the crew. This is a role eminently suited to the flying boats which do not require berth or landing strips for optimum operations.

To reduce reaction time in perhaps the more sensitive missions in the Persian Gulf, the flying boats can use the tactics of sitting in the water (to save fuel) while at the same time using variable depth “dunking” sonars to sanitise the Indian task forces from interference from underwater dangers like frogmen and midget submarines. terrorists as their strategic asset against India and its interests.

Vice versa, Pakistan has taken steps to protect its own maritime strategic assets by shifting away from the Karachi harbour which was blown to smithereens by the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force on 4 December 1971 (a day which India celebrates as Navy Day). It has set up submarine building infrastructure at Ormara due west of Karachi on the Makran coast. Pasni has been developed as a satellite naval base and Gwadar has become a major naval base and hub for the transfer of petroleum products by pipeline to Xianjiang Province in China through Pakistan-occuped Kashmir – the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The ShinMaywa “flying boats” have a range of 4,700 km and a fuel-saving cruise speed of 480 kmph which can be enhanced to 560 kmph in execution of given

missions. Based in Jamnagar in Gujarat, the flying boat can reach Chahbahar in less than three hours. Given its fuel capacity for the 4,700 km range it will have enough fuel on board to conduct airborne reconnaissance to increase domain awareness in all the three elements: in the air, on the surface and underwater. The twenty passenger (or 12 stretcher) space can be used to transport marine commandos (MARCOS) for clandestine operations all along the Makran coast.

Logistics Support Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba has indicated that the Navy has redesigned its patrol patterns to ensure deployment of forces as per their respective missions within and in close proximity of its areas of interest.

Permanent deployment in the Malacca Strait and further southwest in the Indonesian Sunda Strait raises the requirement of

December 2017

It is now more than seven years that the idea was mooted and the process of creating a qualitative staff requirement was initiated.

In every respect, we are still victims of a self-inflicted malaise of delays and failure to take a holistic approach. If numbers have become an issue, then a possible solution could be to ask the major maritime States of India to upgrade their post 26/11 security infrastructure to include flying boats in their security network. In the Andaman and Nicobar, and the Lakshadweep island groups, inland-hopping tourism can be a lucrative addition. Coastal traffic sans major jetties can avoid inland traffic jams. Tactical use of water bodies like the Wular lake and the Pangong lake in Ladakh in landlocked Jammu and Kashmir can be facilitated by the use of flying boats. The time to get moving is now.

Defence AND security alert

37

Dubai Air Show INDIA’s SMALL FOOTPRINT

Aviation MRO In The Making

Today the show is more commercial, as commercial aviation business has increased. Al Makhtoum airport will soon become operational and the large spaces and the hangars and buildings that are coming up fast around it, are being planned as a maintenance, repairs and overhaul (MRO) and an aviation hub of the future for the burgeoning aviation business which is growing at 6.9 per cent in the East and only 3.6 per cent in the West. India has been slow to set up large MRO facilities despite many plans “The Aviation World Is Changing And Dubai Has Got It Right--It Struck Gold At Dubai Air Show As It Planned Few Years Ago To Become an MRO and Commercial Aviation Hub With a Greenfield Al Makhtoum Airport”

Lessons for India

T

he five-day biennial Dubai Air Show2017 was held from 12 November, and was hosted at Dubai’s Greenfield International Al Makhtoum Airport for the second time in the newly formed Dubai South Aviation District.

The facilities are some 35 km away from the Dubai airport to ensure Dubai’s busy civil airline traffic is not disrupted during shows and greater traffic can be

38

handled. Aviation exhibitions bring together leading aircraft companies and the aircraft parking space and maintenance hangars attracted over

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

600 exhibitors from 60 countries, over 50,000 international and official delegates and 600 international and regional media to the show. A full row of

A view of the exhibition and people engaging in the Dubai Air Show

chalets was taken up by the UAE government and the world’s larger Aviation companies for their guests with a grand view of the daily intensive afternoon flying displays.

Super Infrastructure The first Dubai Airshow began in 1986 as an Arab Aviation Exhibition devoted more for military planes, their weapons and systems including ground systems for air defence as the oil laden cash rich Middle East nations led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE were the largest defence importers in the world but today the show is more commercial, as commercial aviation business has increased.

Boeing’s US$ 30 billion deal was described as the “Trump Prizer for trade” for friendship with the USA in the turbulent Middle East

Airlines and many private planes and helicopters which use MRO facilities in Dubai as do some Indian airlines. India has been slow to set up large MRO facilities despite many plans and Dubai is getting geared up for the boom, and a high speed metro line is under construction to the airport. Most Western companies and China have shown interest and invested as it is close to the Jebbel Ali Duty Free SEZ to stock spares and the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report 2018 revealed that the UAE is ranked 21st in the world and is ranked No. 1 in the Arab countries.

Al Makhtoum airport will soon become operational and the large spaces and the hangars and buildings that are coming up fast around it, are being planned as an MRO and an aviation hub of the future for the burgeoning aviation business which is growing at 6.9 per cent in the East and only 3.6 per cent in the West.

The Middle East hosts Emirates, Ethihad, Qatar, Oman and Gulf

December 2017

Defence AND security alert

39

Dubai Air Show INDIA’s SMALL FOOTPRINT

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai inaugurated the 15th Dubai Air Show in cool sunny weather in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces who visited India as guest for India’s Republic Day this year, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai.

Boeing Coup The show recorded an order book of over US$ 30 billion led by Boeing in a surprise announcement by Chairman Emirates Airline Group His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Mahktoum for 40 -98710 Dreamliners for US$ 15 billion and Fly Dubai for 737s leaving Airbus waiting for it’s A-380 orders, which were expected.

Boeing President Commercial Airplanes Kevin McAllister announced deliveries will begin in 2022 and shows level of advance planning. Dubai hotels were full and taxis occupied. The UAE led

by Dubai looks to expand in civil aviation which has overtaken defence business world wide and the show depicted that defence business is more conducted directly with Governments, most times by leaders.

Hence, no big defence deal was announced and very few press conferences on defence aircraft and the US$ 30 billion deals that were announced at the show led by Boeing for its commercial

40

division was the talk of the show.

It was stated by one commentator as the “President Trump prize for trade” for friendship with the USA in the turbulent Middle East, where Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Russia and Syria and even rich Qatar (Sunni) are ranged against Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE and GCC.

UAE Trainer Calidus a UAE company, surprised many when a Dubai (UAE) designed and built gleaming black Air Force propeller Trainer B-450 made a demonstration flight. It was described as a light attack aircraft and advanced armed trainer. In discussions, it came out it has been developed with help from Brazil’s Novaer by its Hungarian born aircraft designer Joseph Kovacs who had also design team for Embraer’s T-27 Tucano. In India a German Kurt Tank had designed the HF-24 (Marut) for Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

On the opening day and daily, the military flying display was led by UAE’s aerobatics demonstration team the Al Fursan (The Knights) formed in 2010 with Italianbuilt Aermacchi MB-339NAT jet aircraft. They were followed by Russia’s single SU-35 lighting the clear sky with its Cobra maneuver followed the noisy powerful Rafale, SAAB’s Gripen, USA’s and UAE’s F-16s, Pakistan’s JF-17 and Super Mushak and the Russian Knights SU-30 team in superb tight loops and rolls. In between helicopters flew and were followed by many civil planes led by an Airbus A-350. In a maiden appearance, Japan’s Kawasaki C-2 airlifter in the area for deployment in D’joubiti made an appearance at the show. The other civil highlights of the show was Emirates display of the luxurious first class suites in their new 777-300ER cabins, and in A-350s and when asked about the economics the Chairman of Emirates said,“We

care more of the future and our passengers’ comfort”.

Air Strikes in Libya or Yemen The UAE’s F-16s pilots spoke to this writer about their operations in Libya in 2011 but were reticent to talk of their operation in Yemen, though at the 8th Air Chief’s Conference on 11 November at the Jumeira Beach Hotel, the UAE Air Force and Air Defence Commander Brigadier General Ibrahim Nasser Al Asawi said, “We are currently participating in Operation Desert Storm and Restore Hope in Yemen under Saudi leadership and in the last 1,000 days, the UAEAF&AD have executed more than 1,30,000 flying hours involving fighter, transport and support aircraft as well as ISR platforms”.

China’s CATIC and Ameco had big stalls with more civil planes on display. The USA’s Boeing and Lockheed and Russia’s Rosboronexport and Dassault had big stalls. Rostec showed its successful MI-171 helicopter and reported the successful sale to India’s Vectra Aviation.

Christopher Davis, president of Raytheon International, discussed the company’s priorities in the Gulf region, and demand for precision munitions and Raytheon made a big thrust for cyber solutions and offerings.

Danny Sebright, executive director of the US-UAE Business Council, said the ‘United Arab Emirates’ acquisition of the F-35 Lightning II fighter is vital for successful “interoperability and coalition operations” with the United States, and added “the UAE is never going

December 2017

Defence AND security alert

41

Dubai Air Show INDIA’s SMALL FOOTPRINT

to attack Israel” and discussed the regional Iran threat. Fred Cromer, president of commercial aircraft at Bombardier, discussed the company’s partnership with Airbus to manufacture its C-Series jets in the United States, in response to the US government’s aircraft-dumping allegations against his company, as well as US-Canada trade relations.

F-16s For India Lockheed’s Randy Howard discussed operational lessons learned and offer of the very economical F-16 Make in India programme, and John Elbon, director of global sales and marketing at Boeing Space Programs, unveiled the relationship between space exploration and

42

diplomacy, and its role in the Gulf region in corporate strategy.

At the Air Chief’s Conference Staff Maj. Gen. Pilot Abdullah Al Hashmi, UAE Air Force, Assistant Undersecretary at the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defence and Dubai Air Show executive director, discussed the value of the Dubai Air Chiefs conference and aired the lessons learned from Afghanistan, Libya, counter-ISIS and Yemen operations, and need for the F-35 Lightning II fighter and why the UAE does not constitute a threat to Israel or vice versa

Rationale For Inter-operability Vice Adm. Chris “Lung” Aquilino, USN, commander of US 5th Fleet,

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

discussed the importance of partnerships to maintain Gulf’s maritime superiority, Iran’s regional behaviour, and steps to avoid accidents in his command, that have plagued the US Navy in the recent past and the need for the F-35 Lightning II fighter at sea.

Lt. Gen. Enzo Vecciarelli, commander of the Italian Air Force, discussed modernisation and operational priorities, lessons learned from recent missions and integrating Italy’s Eurofighter Typhoon and F-35 Lighting II fighters. Brig. Gen. Philippe Adam, French Air Force, commander of the service’s Air Operations Brigade, discussed lessons learned from the counterISIS fight, the French response to the recent attack on US Army

Special Forces soldiers in Niger during 11 November 2017 strike.

India’s showing at Dubai was limited to one stall by BrahMos Aerospace Ltd (BAL) which attracted keen interest by many visitors, well aware that India has not yet responded favourably to import requests from nations like Vietnam. The Ministry of Defence issued an official denial of any exports. Pakistan was given a prominent large single storied structure and showed all its products for the Super Mushak it has exported to Turkey and Iraq, Karakoram-8 and JF-17 and a UAV. The world is changing not only in climate and in digital mode of life but air travel world over is

India’s showing at Dubai was limited to one stall by BrahMos Aerospace Ltd (BAL) which attracted keen interest accelerating and the demand for economical commercial passenger and VIP planes and helicopters, and the UAV market has become more lucrative than a nation’s defence exports as only the USA and the European Union (EU) are the major producers and suppliers dominating the civil passenger and cargo aircraft market followed by Brazil, Russia and China. In this context, China is edging ahead with collaborations and joint ventures with Boeing and Airbus for its own Chinese

December 2017

Airlines and it is predicted will soon surprise the West as China always does, by clinching export orders, as it has with its military JF-17 and equivalent FC-1 fighters to Pakistan and Myanmar respectively. Turkey showed its home made trainer.

(Hurkus) UAV (Anka-s) and helicopter (T625) for exports and the whole show holds lesson that India will make up for the lost time in the aviation business.

Defence AND security alert

43

BrahMos missile PIGGYBACK ON SUKHOI

Brahmastra Of Sorts

In the context of the recent stand-off with the Chinese at Doklam on the Bhutan border, a Sukhoi armed with the BrahMos cruise missile would decimate huge chunks of the vaunted infrastructure on the Tibetan plateau thereby significantly reducing the Chinese ability of fighting a sustained campaign against India – a fact that would be construed around the world as a defeat for the militarily superior Chinese People’s Liberation Army

B

y successfully marrying the deep penetration strike aircraft Sukhoi30MKI with the short-range but supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, Indian defence scientists have changed the battlefield architecture of the future on India’s periphery.

It was a marriage of great convenience because it brought together a weapons platform that can fly long distances and is amenable to multiple upgrades, modifications and modernisation,

44

and a missile that was stultified by the limitations imposed by nations with massive militaryindustrial complexes through the Missile Technology Control Regime. The MTCR prohibits the sale of any missile capable of carrying a warhead of 500 kg over a distance of 300 km to any country that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

India has refused to sign the NPT because it is discriminatory.

The MTCR Skirted India and the Russian Federation (created after the collapse of the

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

Soviet Union) in 1998 formed a joint venture that stayed within the restrictions imposed by the MTCR but invested a supersonic characteristic that makes the BrahMos (named after the Brahmaputra and Moscow rivers) the only missile of its kind in the world.

By integrating the short-range BrahMos to an aircraft that was designed for deep penetration (1500-plus km) BrahMos Aerospace in collaboration with a host of scientific institutions under the DRDO and CSIR, the private

sector and Russians created a system that can threaten the whole of Pakistan and large stretches of China which hitherto were reachable only by ballistic missiles of the Prithvi or Agni variety.

The BrahMos-A air-to-surface missile tested successfully on 22 November has validated all the hard work put in to reduce the weight of the original BrahMos missile from 300 tons to 250 tons; creating space for the missile within the fuselage; design, development and fabrication of the longest launcher ever used on a fighter aircraft, and host of other modifications.

The fact that this is a cruise missile designed to skim the surface of the earth to avoid detection by enemy radar and hit targets within its range gives to the platform from which it is launched a stand-off capability.

The Indian Sukhois had earlier been modified to take the Russian K-100 air-to-air missile with the capability of shooting down the Chinese airborne warning and command system (AWACS) at distances as far as 400 km. This itself had changed the battlefield scenario significantly. It removed with one shot the one platform that, being airborne, could detect an approaching cruise missile

and initiate counter-measures by the air defence network. With the operationalisation of the BrahMos air-to-surface missile a Sukhoi aircraft flying at treetop height will be able to hit targets at a distance of 1500 km (the range of the aircraft) plus 290 km (the range of the missile). This 1,790 km range brings several of Chinese military-industrial sites and infrastructure like roads and bridges within pinpoint hitting reach. This drastically changes the future battlefield in India’s favour.

The versatility of the BrahMos missile is underscored by the fact that it has been operationalised in the Army and Navy. But the missile under their command remains constrained by the stipulations of the MTCR at 500 kg warhead and 290 km range. It is only the Indian Air Force that has managed to tweek the range of the missile by fitting it onto a long-range aircraft like the Sukhoi without coming into contention with the MTCR and attracting sanctions and embargoes.

Cruise Triad The BrahMos with the Army is a surface-to-surface variant, its supersonic speed lending it immunity from detection by enemy air defence radars.

December 2017

Diana Mehra Deputy Editor of Defence and Security Alert and Food and Beverage Buzz magazines.

The fact that this is a cruise missile designed to skim the surface of the earth gives to the platform from which it is launched a stand-off capability

Defence AND security alert

45

BrahMos missile PIGGYBACK ON SUKHOI

But its range remains 290 km. Similar is the case with the shipborne variant which can be used against both enemy surface ships as well as landbased strategic installations like harbours and coastal radar networks. A submarine launched version has all the advantages of vessels of that genre (of stealth and maneuverability) but it too remains constrained by the range being fixed at 290 km.

Indian defence laboratories are producing indigenously other missiles with longer ranges and greater throw-weight and being nuclear capable. But this saga must remain confined to the romance between the Sukhoi and the Brahmos simply because India currently operates 240 Sukhoi multirole, long

46

range aircraft.

If even two squadrons of this type of aircraft are fitted with the BrahMos air-to-surface cruise missiles of the kind tested in the Bay of Bengal in the presence of Dr Sudhir Mishra, DG (BrahMos) and CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace on 22 November, the implications for infrastructure and forces deployed by any inimical neighbour can be serious.

In the context of the recent stand-off with the Chinese at Doklam on the Bhutan border a Sukhoi armed with the BrahMos cruise missile would decimate huge chunks of the vaunted infrastructure on the Tibetan plateau thereby significantly reducing the Chinese ability of fighting a sustained campaign against India – a fact that would

December 2017 Defence AND security alert

be construed around the world as a defeat for the militarily superior Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

China is currently feverishly setting up its One Belt One Road network through Myanmar and Bangladesh (to avoid the Malacca Straits bottleneck) and open up safe passages for its energy supply. Similar is its effort to set up the China-Pak Economic Corridor through Pakistanoccupied Kashmir as the most reliable route for its requirements of petroleum products from the Gulf countries. A disruption of this corridor by the combination of the Sukhoi and the BrahMos will put paid to Chinese ambitions for great power status and dominance in the Indo-Pacific theatre.

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AQUILA

RNI NO. DELENG/2009/31195

ERADICATE SMELLS AND AIR POLLUTION QUICKLY, ECONOMICALLY AND SUSTAINABLY! A range of high capacity wall mounted Ozone generators for all PUBLIC areas Fast, effective, safe

E

radicate smells and air pollution quickly, economically and sustainably with nature’s own powerful air purifier – OZONE. Watership Down Technologies Aquila Series of Ozone generators, powerfully oxidise all smells within minutes. If left on overnight, it will eradicate bacteria and viruses leaving rooms with Pure, Clean Air ready for the next day, all automatically.

AQUILA Specifications: Ozone output:

3, 5, 10 Grams per hour

Ozone control:

Fully adjustable O output

Control:

Automatic on flow

Cabinet:

Stainless steel

Dimensions:

3gm - 460 x 160 x 220 mm 5gm - 460 x 160 x 220 mm 10gm - 580 x 260 x 280 mm (w x d x h)

Weight:

5.4, 5.5, 8.5 KG

Ozone is the strongest available air cleaner and disinfectant for treating odours. The Aquila generator uses the Corona discharge system, with ceramics rather than coils. These produce a higher ozone concentration in the 3 standard sizes 3g/h, 5g/h and 10g/h.

You could install two or more units in parallel increasing output if required.

Allowed to run remotely during the day in public areas such as dormitories, the Aquila will keep smells and odours at bay. Then, when a deep clean is needed when the occupants have left, this can be done easily using the supplied remote control. Filling the rooms with ozone will mean all surfaces will be disinfected by killing off all pathogens.

The Aquila is ideal for school classrooms, offices, restaurants, cafés, shops and general public areas.

Depending on volume/size of a room, the 10grm model will look after up to 1000 M .

The Aquila can be used in multiples to cover larger rooms.

Exclusive Distributors in India

For trade queries: ceo@pawitra.com