No smooth sailing yet

To offset a rapidly depleting fleet, the Defence Ministry sanctioned an off-the-shelf purchase of ships, submarines and an aircraft carrier from Russia worth over 10 billion. This is in addition to the Navy8217;s annual acquisition budget of Rs 1,000 crore.

Earlier this year, the Defence Ministry placed an order with a Russian shipyard for threeProject 1135.6 modified Krivak III frigates.

Four-year negotiations over the mothballed Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov have finally come to a close and the ship is to be sold for a little over its scrap value. India is to now pay an unspecified amount for its two-year refit and Su-33 or MiG-29K aircraft squadrons, before it joins the Navy in three years. But even this spate of on-off purchases is too little too late, says the Navy.

The destroyer INS Delhi which joined the Navy a year ago, was the first principal surface combatant acquisition in 10 years. The frigate and destroyer fleet now stands at just 13 ships. The Navy says it needs 26 such ships to be effectively guard the nation8217;s 7516-km-long coastline.

Blue water dreams are still distant at present, replacing existing force is a priority. Creeping up is the spectre of block obsolescence, where an entire class of ships becomes obsolete. The five indigenously built Leander class ships, five Foxtrot class submarines and four Petyaclass corvettes and a tanker are all headed towards the shipbreakers. This seriously affects the Navy8217;s warfighting capabilities.

The submarine fleet, which stood at an impressive 20 vessels a decade ago has shrunk to less than 16 operational vessels. A ninth Kilo class submarine INS Sindhurakshak was acquired from Russia this year and a tenth Kilo will be inducted in the next three years. Two more Mazagon Dock-built Project 75 submarines will be inducted in the next decade, but even these will not replace the retired units.

quot;The Navy does not need three aircraft carriers,quot; less than a decade after an ill-informed Defence Minister thus dismissed the Navy8217;s indigenous aircraft carrier the Air Defence Ship, the navy is left with one ageing aircraft carrier. And when the INS Viraat goes its life extension refit next March, the Navy will spend two anxious years without the carrier.

A proposal for building the indigenous aircraft carrier was submitted to the Government 10 years ago. Today, thefile has already spent longer with the bureaucracy than the actual project to build the 28,000 tonne ship would have.

An admiral mentions how the cash-strapped Russians had offered to sell eight Krivak class frigates to the Navy for around 700 million four years ago. By the time the deal was signed this year, the ensuing cost escalation ensured that the Navy could buy only three ships for the same price.

One way of dealing with this, says the Navy, is to cram existing ships with heavy armament. The Delhi class destroyers pack 16 lethal 130-km range SS-N-25 Sapless8217; surface-to-surface missiles, twice the warload of a ship of its class. The 1200-ton INS Kora, lead ship of the Project 25A class, is already the world8217;s most heavily armed corvette.

The Krivak class frigates have been upgraded to destroyer status and will be equipped with formidable supersonic ship-killing cruise missiles. The tenth Kilo class submarines will be equipped with underwater fired missiles, a capability that will be laterretrofitted on all the other submarines.

In an attempt to involve the industry, the Navy has drawn up a 30-year shipbuilding plan where it looks set to acquire 50 indigenously built frigates and submarines.

However, the Government is yet to sanction even the building of the first the of the navy8217;s Project 17 Standard Frigates8217; at the Mazagon Docks.

Delays in indigenous construction too have added to the navy8217;s misery. The Project 16A Brahmaputra Class frigates, were ordered from the Garden Reach Shipyard, Calcutta way back in 1985. The first ship is still a year away from being commissioned.

And if the high costs of replacing existing numbers wasn8217;t enough, the Navy has to meet new threats. The acquisition of three Harpoon missile armed P3C Orion maritime patrol cum strike aircraft by Pakistan has necessitated the purchase of four Ka-31 Helix-B Airborne Early Warning AEW helicopters from Russia even as the Navy scouts the international market for long-range maritime strike aircraft. Naval brasshide no admiration for the Chinese navy which is racing towards blue water status with a 50-year perspective plan.

Meanwhile a combination of bureaucratic delays, political indecision and budgetary constraints will ensure that the Indian Navy in the early half of the next century will perforce be a leaner, meaner force, capable of some deep water operations. At least until the induction of cruise-missile armed nuclear submarines.