Periscope: Safe seas, safer India

In 1415, King Henry V is reported to have inspected the English fleet before it sailed for war with France, thus beginning the tradition of fleet review by the head of state. In modern times nations have held fleet reviews, both at the national (called PFR, or Presidential Fleet Review) and international (called IFR, or International Fleet Review) levels, to showcase their maritime growth while at the same time improving goodwill and friendship with other nations.
Traditionally, as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the President of India reviews the fleet once during his tenure in office.

The PFR or IFR is a grand ceremony where the President sails in a ship designated as the presidential yacht and inspects the warships at anchorage. Seminars, a city parade and a “naval firepower demonstration” which showcases naval combat capabilities to the political leadership and public who watch it from the seafront also take place.

On October 10, 1953, India held its first PFR with President Rajendra Prasad reviewing the Indian fleet at Bombay. Till now, India has had seven PFRs and two IFRs. Having participated as Eastern Fleet commander in India’s first-ever IFR held at Mumbai on February 17, 2001, I was looking forward to attending the second IFR, which was held on February 6 at Visakhapatnam though I was unable to attend the same due to other commitments.

It was a grand affair with 54 nations participating and 24 nations sending their warships. China — which had missed IFR 2001 because Pakistan was not invited — sent two warships and a delegation, while Pakistan, though invited, did not attend. Visakhapatnam, which was ravaged in 2015 by a super cyclone, received a much-needed facelift to welcome foreign visitors who included 21 Navy Chiefs, ambassadors, and military officers, in addition to the top Indian leadership, including the President, Prime Minister, defence minister, governors, chief ministers, etc.

The Indian Navy was represented by over 70 warships, 34 aircraft and submarines. The Indian Coast Guard ships and aircraft also participated along with merchant ships. Over 99 warships (including 28 foreign warships from 24 nations) present at anchorage off Visakhapatnam, along with numerous VIPs and massive crowds, posed a huge security challenge given the number of terrorist attacks emanating from neighbouring countries.

The Indian Navy, along with other security agencies, ensured that a layered seaward security system based on constant patrolling by ships, aircraft and submarines ensured safety against any sea-borne terror strike during IFR 2016.
As the IFR concluded on February 8, India announced that it would host a 30-nation “Global Maritime Summit” in Mumbai from April 14-16.

This will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the aim of attracting $6 billion as foreign direct investment to boost India’s maritime infrastructure, which contributes directly to Indian economic growth as 90 per cent of trade and over 80 per cent of our oil imports are done via the seas. This is indeed a laudable move and shows how the Indian leadership is aware of the linkage of Indian economic growth to the oceans of the world.

Another timely and relevant event is Defexpo 2016, which is being held for the first time in Goa from March 26 to 31. The shift in venue from New Delhi (Pragati Maidan) to Goa could be partly due to defence minister Manohar Parrikar being a Goan. However, it also indicates that New Delhi is finally overcoming its traditional “sea blindness” and India is taking its first step to becoming a sea power.

However, despite the spectacular IFR 2016 and the statement by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R.K. Dhowan that India is at present indigenously building 46 ships and submarines, I did notice that only three obsolete Kilo-class conventional submarines participated in the IFR.

This indicates the rather sorry state of our submarine fleet which has rapidly reduced to 13 conventional units of which 12 have reached or will shortly reach the end of their designed operational 25-year life.

Worse, all this comes at a time when the Chinese media had reported that a Chinese submarine was also on deployment in the Indian Ocean (during IFR).
Attempts to extend the lives of these obsolete submarines by another 10 years with expensive refits costing '5,000 crore is not going to meet the challenges posed by new capabilities being introduced by the Chinese and Pakistani Navies.

The six conventional Scorpene-class submarines currently under construction at Mazagaon Docks Ltd (Mumbai) are over six years behind schedule and will enter service between 2016 and 2022. This leaves a huge vacuum in our underwater combat capability, which needs to be urgently addressed by direct purchase of SSNs (submerged ship, nuclear) or tactical nuclear submarines before we are confronted by a “surprise at sea” like the disastrous 1962 Sino-India war.

For the record, China has over 50 conventional submarines, six SSNs and three SSBNs (ship submersible ballistic, nuclear), and one Chinese sub is always on deployment in the Indian Ocean, while Pakistan (which has five French Agosta-class conventional subs) has ordered eight modern Chinese Qing-class missile-firing conventional subs (four to be built in Karachi and four to be imported).

The IFR 2016 was a good opportunity to showcase the emerging nuclear submarine force of the Indian Navy. It would have been a feather in our cap if Mr Modi could have commissioned our first indigeneous SSBN, Arihant, just before or during the IFR, thus enabling participation in the IFR by this vital asset which will form the third leg of our triad-based nuclear deterrence. Hopefully, Mr Modi will commission INS Arihant soon.

So, while the Indian Navy has done the nation proud by conducting IFR 2016 and the government has taken the next logical step of announcing its plan of hosting a global maritime summit, a lot needs to be done.

We need to ensure that we have a blue-water Navy which will provide both “safer seas and strategic sea-based deterrence”, and the first step in this direction would be to increase its budget and fill in the gap in its underwater combat capability.