PUNE, APRIL 4: The Indian Navy is all set to acquire five submarines fitted with sophisticated missiles with land attack capabilities to effectively carry out operations at sea, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sushil Kumar said on Monday.The accent now is on creating a lean, mean and potent force. Towards this end, seven new warships will be acquired this year, including INS Mumbai which will be honed to become the most powerful ship in Asia in the same class as INS Delhi and INS Mysore, the Naval Chief told reporters after delivering a talk on `The Role of Indian Navy's Strategic Role in the Emerging Geo-Political Scenario in the Indian Ocean Region.'The talk was organised by the Indian Maritime Foundation to mark the National Maritime Day.The seven new ships which will be acquired by the Indian Navy include the INS Aditya, INS Bramhaputra, Fast Attack Craft, INS Sindhushastra, INS Kulish, INS Darshak and INS Mumbai. INS Sindhushastra, a missile firing submarine of Russian make will be commissioned this June, adding teeth towards making the Indian Navy a potent force, he said.In the next few years, the Indian Navy is reducing the strength of its warships from 140 to 110 and the focus is on greater offensive power and a multi-dimensional role.Admiral Sushil Kumar who dwelt on the role of the Navy in the afterglow of American President Bill Clinton's visit to India believes that the US wants peace and tranquility chiefly due to the economic interests. Energy is the buzzword.``And we are sitting close a a volcano, what with the Persian Gulf and the Central Asia with its precious oil resources,'' he remarked, adding that in all these scheme of things, India becomes the central balancing factor against the emergence of China as a major peer in South Asia.The policy of the Indian Navy is to avert a conflict and preventive deterrence, he said. The thrust, according to him, is towards raising the threshold of conventional deterrence much higher. On the maritime diplomacy front, the Indian Navy is already training 27 foreign Navies including Bangladesh, Singapore, Myanmar, Maldives and Mauritius.``The idea is to keep them continuously engaged and creating goodwill among other nations,'' he said. In jocular vein, the Naval Chief declared that the Indian Navy carried out joint exercises with every country in the world except Pakistan ``which is not very keen''. More importantly, the Navy is also following its doctrine of deterrence through active presence in the seas.``We have maintained a strong posture of readiness after Kargil to cater to the vagaries of human nature.'' He said the Navy is gearing up to contribute to joint operations with the other forces to effectively carry out operations at sea and support land operations with its potent submarines.The Coast Guard has also come of age and has done well for itself with its 60 ships. The Coast Guard, he said, will soon take over the task of guarding the coastlines leaving the Indian Navy to concentrate on its bluewater capabilities.Calling for the evolution of a maritime strategy, Admiral Sushil Kumar said that India has to come to terms with her maritime destiny. ``We are forced to counter cross-border terrorism. We must contain it. But India has a destiny beyond Kashmir and we must not get side-tracked from pursuing a global role,'' he asserted.The Naval Chief believed that Pakistan would continue to pose problems even if the issues were to be solved and, therefore, India must look beyond. The Clinton visit was an apt reflection of the importance attached to India. ``He spent six days in India, a day in Bangladesh and just 5 hours in Pakistan. You can draw your own conclusions from this.'' he said.
