No room for mistakes in a nuclear Navy

• In April, missile corvette Prahar sank after colliding with merchant ship Rajiv Gandhi.

• In December 2005, a speeding INS Trishul, another Talwar class stealth frigate, collided with a commercial ship, Ambuja Laxmi, outside the Mumbai harbour.

Coming at a time when the Naval Headquarters is already under a cloud for leakage of classified information from the Directorate of Naval Operations, the accidents do not bode well for the force that prides itself on its strategic long legs—stretching all the way from Gulf of Eden to Malacca Straits.

It is obvious that there is a lack of discipline in the force and the leadership is still at odds to resolve it.

On their part, India’s strategic planners—despite an overt Nuclear Triad doctrine—have not yet been able to transform this “Cinderella Force” into an expeditionary force that can project dominance thousands of miles from the mainland.

But that transformation is the only way ahead. After all, The last time Indian Navy lost one of its men in action was in July 2000, when marine commando HS Tyagi took on militants in the Kashmir Valley. And before that, one has to dig into the annals of 1971 conflict to find out the last time the Navy got blooded in a conflict.

The timing of the incidents couldn’t be worse— coming even as the country is in the middle of an ambitious programme to catapult the Navy into the big league.

In two year’s time, in 2008, aircraft carrier Vikramaditya (rechristened Admiral Gorshkov) and a nuclear submarine, both acquired from Russia, are going to be inducted into the Navy.

Plus, the Indian indigenous nuclear submarine—or advanced technology vehicle (ATV)—is finally on track and currently the nuclear power plant is being fitted into its hull at the Visakhapatnam shipyard. By all indications, it will be inducted into the Navy along with Russian boat. Displacing around 6,000-7,000 tonne, the ATV will be similar in design to INS Chakra, the Charlie-class submarine leased out by the Russians in 1990s.

The DRDO has also made significant progress in development of the Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) in a bid to complete the third leg of the Triad nuclear doctrine.Called Sagarika or PJ 02, the SLBM is going to be a two-stage missile with a range of over 800 kilometers. The missile has already been successfully tested at the Interim Test Range (ITR) twice. Insiders say the missile, different from Klub or any other Russian made weapon, has not only sea-to-surface capability, but is a potent weapon with low circular error of probability.

And if this was not enough, the UPA government has given the green signal to the Navy and DRDO this year to build two more indigenous nuclear submarines after the first is inducted in 2008.

The Navy’s long-term plan is to have two aircraft carriers (Vikramaditya and indigenous Air Defence Ship being built at Karwar) and no less than five nuclear submarines that can match the evolving strategic scenario in Asia.

It is no secret that New Delhi looks to match Beijing’s sea capability, with the latter going all out to build a potent PLA Navy with Xia class nuclear submarines and Soverymenny class destroyers acquired from Russia.

This decade will see power projection by both the Asian powers in Indian Ocean—which accounts for 52 per cent of the world trade—and the Americans, who are here to stay to protect their oil economy.

In short, the future is full of opportunity for the Indian Navy but is also fraught with peril because of the nuclear dimension. But is the Navy prepared to be the cutting edge of India’s military might?

The answer is an obvious “no” as the force still searches for a strong leader, who will be a match for the Defence Ministry’s babus and have the vision to take the Force forward—exorcising the ghost of Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, who was brought down by narrow-minded babus in conjunction with stock market dabbling officers.That will not be easy.

The need of the hour is discipline, not glossy coffee table books, musical orchestras or bilateral ship visits (euphemistically called military tourism) to the four corners of the world. There is no scope for mistakes in a nuclear Navy.