BOMBAY (PTI): India must acquire nuelear powered submarines to emerge as a truly deterrent force in the Indian ocean for effectively discouraging foreign interference and safeguarding its vital offshore assets and outlying islands in the Andamans, naval experts have said.
The return of “Chakra,” a leased Russian nuclear powered submarine, after expiry of the lease period, has handicapped the Navy, noled experts at the “college of Naval warfare” in Karanja, off Bombay, while talking to 4 visiting PTI correspondent, on the occasion of “Navy Week.”
Manpower trained in operating nuclear submarines would be wasted unless other such submarines are inducted into the fleet soon, the experts noted. A neighboring country had as many as seven nuclear powered submarines which greatly enhanced its range of operations, they said, Theoretically, a nuclear powered submarine could be lurking anywhere between the gulf of Hormuz and the cape comorin, the southemmost tip of the Indian Peninula, in view of its capacity to. Traverse thousands of nautical miles.
Researchers at the college, which is the highest seat of academy in the Indian Navy, pointed out that the diversion of the U.S. seventh fleet to the Bay of Bengal during the 1971 operations exerted great pressure on India. But the pressure was relieved when Soviet nuclear submarines surfaced there, posing a strong deterrent factor to any intended intervention.
In striking contrast, Russia was not in a position to break the U.S. Naval blockage during the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960’s as Soviet power at sea was then limited. Therefore, the projection of power at sea, which can be boosted by nuclear-powered submarines, should not be underestimated, they observed.
According to commodore M.V.Suresh, director of the ‘college, who earlier headed “Ins Veerbahu,” the submarine depot at Visakhapatna, the country’s major shipbuilding port on the east coast, Asian economies are steadily becoming stronger and their combined economic potential would outstrip that of any of the present big powers. They cold logically afford to have a strong naval presence.
Commodore Suresh noted that the USA could play an effective role during World War 2, largely because of the growth of its Navy. On the importance of the Indian Ocean, he pointed out that a former director of the American college of Naval warfare, Admiral Alfred ‘Thayer Mahan had held that “he who rules the Indian Ocean will rule the world in the 2istcentury.”
Asked about the American Naval base at Diego Garcia, he said it gave the USA a strategic point of control in the Indian Ocean.
According to a Senior Naval officer, regional cooperation between naval forces in the Asian region would be a better alternative than any country assuming responsibility of a global policeman, howsoever well-intentioned. The Indian Navy must grow, even as there are reductions in the other two wings of the armed forces, he opined.
The well-equipped Library at the college is stocked with volumes of naval history, which reiterate that power out at sea is a crucial determinant of national sovereignty. The defeat of the angre navy in 1756 enabled the British to wrest control of the Konkan and ultimately subjugate the rest of India to establish British Raj.
The success of the 1971 operations could indeed be traced to the operational freedom of the Indian aircraft camer in the Bay of Bengal which enabled the effective missile attack on Karachi.
A Naval instructor sums up that Indians must develop a sustained interest in oceanic problems and a conviction that the future lies in the seas before India can really embark on the path of developing into a major Naval power.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 3, 1993
