STRENGTH OF INDIAN NAVY
Ships[edit]
The names of all in service ships (and Naval Bases) of the Indian Navy are prefixed with the letters INS, designating Indian Naval Ship or Indian Navy Station. The fleet of the Indian Navy is a mixture of domestic built and foreign vessels.
The Indian Navy presently has two aircraft carriers in active service, the INS Viraat and INS Vikramaditya. INS Viraat is planned for decommissioning after the induction of the first domestically built Vikrant class aircraft carrier.[91] In 2004, India bought the Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov for the equivalent of US$974 Million. It cost an additional US$1.326 billion to overhaul the vessel and refit it entirely with new electronic, weapon systems and sensors,bringing the total procurement cost to USD 2.3 Billion. INS Vikramaditya sailed to India after her commissioning on 15 November 2013. It joined active service by December 2013.[92] The Indian Navy has anamphibious transport dock of the Austin class, re-christened as INS Jalashwa in Indian service. It also maintains a fleet of landing ship tanks. It is expected that four more amphibious transport docks will be constructed in the future.[93]
The navy currently operates one Kolkata, three Delhi and five Rajput-class guided-missile destroyers. The ships of the Rajput class will be replaced in the near future by the next-generationKolkata-class destroyers (Project 15B) which will feature a number of improvements.
In addition to destroyers, the navy operates several classes of frigates such as three Shivalik(Project 17 class) and six Talwar class frigates. Seven additional Shivalik-class frigates (Project 17A class frigates) are on order.[94] The older Godavari class frigates will systematically be replaced one by one as the new classes of frigates are brought into service over the next decade. The last remaining Nilgiri class frigate was decommissioned on 27 June 2013.
Smaller littoral zone combatants in service are in the form of corvettes, of which the Indian Navy operates the Kora, Khukri, Veer andAbhay classes corvettes. The next-generation Kamorta class of corvettes are currently under development with the first commissioned in August 2014.
Replenishment tankers such as the Jyoti class tanker, the Aditya and the new Deepak class fleet tankers help improve the navy's endurance at sea. The Deepak class tankers will be the mainstay of the replenishment fleet until the first half of the 21st century.[95]
Submarines[edit]
The Indian Navy operates two types of conventional attack submarines; the Sindhughosh (Russian Kilo-class submarine design) and theShishumar (German Type 209/1500 design) classes.
India also possess a single Akula-class submarine class nuclear-powered attack submarine named the INS Chakra. She is the result of aUS$2 billion deal between India and Russia for the completion and lease of two Akula-class submarines to the Indian Navy.[96] Three hundred Indian Navy personnel were trained in Russia for the operation of these submarines. Negotiations underway with Russia for the lease of the second Akula-class.[97] At the end of the lease, it has been agreed that India will have the option to purchase the submarines outright.[98]
Arihant, was launched on 26 July 2009 in Visakhapatnam (India) and is currently undergoing sea trials.[99] The Navy plans to have six SSBN's in service in the near future.[100] She is both the first boat of the Arihant-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and the first nuclear-powered submarine to be built in India.[101]
Weapon systems[edit]
India has a number of foreign made cruise missile systems, including the Klub SS-N-27. It also has its own Nirbhay cruise missile systems under development. Another successful programme has been the adaptation of the Yakhont anti-ship missile system into the BrahMos by the NPO and the DRDO. The BrahMos has been tailored to Indian needs and uses a large proportion of Indian-designed components and technology, including its fire control systems, transporter erector launchers, and its onboard navigational attack systems. The successful test of Brahmos from INS Rajput (D51) provides Indian Navy with precision land attack capability.[102] India has also fitted its P-8I Neptune reconnaissance aircraft with all-weather, active-radar-homing, over-the-horizon AGM-84L Harpoon Block II Missiles and Mk 54 All-Up-Round Lightweight Torpedoes.[103] Indian warships' primary air-defence shield is provided by Barak-1 SAM while an advanced version Barak-8 is in development with join collaboration with Israel.[104] India's next-generation Scorpene class submarines will be armed with Exocet anti-ship missile system. Among indigenous missiles, ship-launched version of Prithvi-II is called Dhanush, which has a range of 350 km and can carry nuclear warhead.[105] The K-15 Sagarika(Oceanic) submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), which has a range of at least 700 km (some sources claim 1000 km) forms part of India's nuclear triad and is extensively tested to be integrated with Arihant class of nuclear submarines. A longer range submarine launched ballistic missile called K-4 is under testing, to be followed by K-5 SLBM.
Electronic warfare and systems management[edit]
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Sangraha is a joint electronic warfare programme of the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) and the Indian Navy. The system comprises a family of electronic warfare suites, such as Ajanta and Ellora, for use on different naval platforms capable of intercepting, detecting, and classifying pulsed, carrier wave, pulse repetition frequency agile, frequency agile and chirpradars. The systems employ a modular approach facilitating deployment on various platforms like helicopters, vehicles, and small ships. Certain platforms, apart from ESM (electronic support measures), have ECM (electronic countermeasure) capabilities. Advanced technologies like multiple-beam phased array jammers are employed in the system for simultaneous handling of multiple threats.[106]
The Indian Navy also relies on information technology to face the challenges of the 21st century. The Indian Navy is implementing a new strategy to move from a platform centric force to a network-centric force by linking all shore-based installations and ships via high-speed data networks and satellites.[107][108] This will help in increased operational awareness. The network is referred to as the Navy Enterprise Wide Network (NEWN). The Indian Navy has also provided training to all its personnel in Information Technology (IT) at the Naval Institute of Computer Applications (NICA) located in Mumbai. Information technology is also used to provide better training, like the usage of simulators and for better management of the force.[109]
Information technology cadre[edit]
With increasing cyber terrorism and attacks on its networks, the navy has created a separate cell for communications, space and network centric operations (CS&NCO) under an officer of the rank of Rear Admiral. The cell would operate and maintain the naval network and will respond to cyber attacks from hostile hackers. It will be manned by a special information technology cadre of the Indian Navy.[110]
[edit]
India's first exclusive defence satellite GSAT-7 was successfully launched by European space consortium Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou spaceport in French Guianain August, 2013, giving a major push to the country's maritime security. Indian Navy would be the user of the multi-band home-built communication spacecraft, expected to be operational by September, 2013. GSAT-7 was designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and is expected to operate for seven years in its orbital slot at 74 degrees east, providing UHF, S-band, C-band and Ku-band relay capacity. Its Ku-band capacity is expected to provide high-density data transmission facility, both for voice and video. This satellite has been provided with additional power to communicate with smaller and mobile (not necessarily land-based) terminals. This dedicated satellite is expected to provide the Indian navy with an approximately 3,500- to 4,000-kilometer footprint over the Indian Ocean region, and over both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal region and enable real-time networking of all its operational assets in the water (and land). It also will help the navy to operate in a network-centric atmosphere.[