‘Indo-Pacific is new arena of geo-political, geo-economic, and tech competition and contestation’ says former Vice Admiral

Earlier, moderating the discussion, former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba (retd), said the speakers will also address issues relating to the Indo-Pacific region and relevance of aircraft carriers.

“India has a rich naval heritage and maritime presence over ages. India’s destiny and future is linked to the ocean specially Indian ocean. We sit astride very important sea lines of communication which criss cross east and west,” said Admiral Lanba.

Vice Admiral Luthra said aircraft carriers are not purely war fighting machines but they have a larger strategic and tactical role. “A new order is taking shape and old one is giving way. Global economic activity has shifted to Indo-Pacific region.

Interconnectedness of this region is giving it a new dynamism . Maritime areas are the growth underbelly of this region. A large number of countries have outlined their vision and strategy for the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.

The Admiral referred to the inadequacies of traditional instruments of international cooperation and the element of nationalism versus globalisation. He said the traditional security concepts were now fuzzy and that the strategy of hedging was the new norm.

He said the Indo-Pacific was the new arena of geo-political, geo-economic and technical competition and contestation. He added that the Indo-Pacific was a coherent strategic space with special focus on maritime domain. Pointing towards the shift of global economic activity to Indo-Pacific region, he said 60 per cent of the world GDP, two thirds of global growth and 70 per cent of world trade was in this region.

“Among the countries and power blocs with new strategy, outlook and approach towards this region are USA, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Netherlands, EU, UK, ASEAN, IORA and Canada,” he added.

Commenting on China, Vice Admiral Luthra said the rise of China with new strategic entity has been marked by its decisive shift to maritime orientation. Referring to the meteoric rise of the PLA Navy, he said China was seeking a new model for great power relations. “The Chinese aim to be a world class military by 2035 and win wars against a strong adversary by 2049. They are opposed to an Indo-Pacific framework,” he said.

He pointed out that it was in 2008 that India came up with concept of net security provider in IOR. In 2015, the vision for Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) was formulated and in 2018 a vision for the Indo-Pacific was outlined at the Shangri La dialogue, he said.

In 2019 the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) was launched at East Asia Summit and in 2020 the IPOI and SAGAR were linked at ASEAN-India summit.

“Aircraft carriers have been around since First World War. They have different roles in strategic, operational and tactical context. It is not that they are easy targets, aircraft carriers also have a very strong survivability factor,” said Vice Admiral Anil Chawla (retd).

Vice Admiral Chawla said that there were only seven countries operating aircraft carriers and an additional five were operating helicopter carriers. He said India’s role and outlook needs appropriate maritime capabilities and there is a requirement to prevent the domination of IOR by another power. He said the opposition to aircraft carriers in India often stems from the point of cost and vulnerability.

He said aircraft carriers are an optimum force mix with wide reach and sustenance and had an important role to play in a two front scenario. “They provide flexibility of tactical power at sea and can be used in conjunction with shore based air power if need be,” he said.

He gave a detailed presentation on China’s aircraft carrier programme and mentioned its steam powered aircraft carrier Liaoning, which was a decommissioned Ukrainian ship named Varyag. “It was Commissioned in 2012. It was essentially a demonstrator platform for the Chinese Navy,” he said.

He also referred to the Shandong aircraft carrier of China, which is operationally available with a compliment of 40 aircraft (36 J-15 fighter and four helicopters).

Vice Admiral Chawla said China has embarked upon an ambitious Type 004 aircraft carrier project which when ready by 2030 would be the largest aircraft carrier in the world. “It is comparable in size with US Ford Class carrier but the big drawback is that it is not nuclear propelled like US carrier. Gradually they are matching up to US carriers,” he added.

He said China has opted for aircraft carriers to help PLA overcome regional geographic limitations and ensure protection of its distant ocean interests under its current maritime strategy of ‘Offshore waters defence with open seas protection’.

“This is a sea control strategy with long term ambitions of attaining ‘command of the seas’. Only aircraft carriers can give China a credible power projection capability. It also assists it in asserting its maritime claims in Taiwan, South China sea, Senkaku Islands etc and helps close the technological gap with the USA. By having a true peer threat to US Navy’s aircraft carrier led global dominance, it helps China in attaining its ultimate aim of replacing or matching the US as a major world power,” he said.

Vice Admiral Anup Singh (retd) referred to the power projection aspect of having aircraft carriers in the navy and the wide radius of operations that it enables the navy to have wherever the carrier operates. He gave examples of the 1971 war and how aircraft operating from INS Vikrant ensured dominance over the coastal areas and ports in East Pakistan (later Bangladesh).