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Navy tracks Chinese surveillance vessel in Indian Ocean ahead of missile test
Vice admiral Pradeep Chauhan (retd), director general, National Maritime Foundation, said the Chinese ship is there to track various parameters of the missile planned to be tested by India. These include range, trajectory and speed
NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy is tracking a Chinese surveillance vessel, Yuan Wang 6, which entered the Indian Ocean region a week ahead of a scheduled missile test by India over the Bay of Bengal, people familiar with the development said on Friday, asking not to be named.
The development comes on the back of another Chinese surveillance ship, Yuan Wang 5, visiting Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port in mid-August, with Indian security planners then flagging concerns about a more established Chinese presence in regional waters.
“We are aware of the presence of the Chinese surveillance vessel, Yuan Wang 6. in the Indian Ocean region. It tracks satellites and ballistic missiles. Extra-regional activity in the area is always monitored. We deploy our assets in a way that helps track all activities in the region,” said one of the officials cited above.
The ship’s presence in the Indian Ocean region comes at a time when there have been reports of a missile test by India from Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast next week.
According to open source intelligence analyst who uses the name @detresfa on Twitter, India has issued a notification for a no-fly zone over the Bay of Bengal region indicative of an upcoming missile test, with the launch window being between November 10 and 11.
China is known to deploy surveillance vessels in the region to track missile launches, said a second official. Media reports cited data from MarineTraffic, an online service which provides information on global movement of ships, while reporting on the entry of Yuan Wang 6 into the Indian Ocean region.
A navy spokesperson refused to comment on the development.
Vice admiral Pradeep Chauhan (retd), director general, National Maritime Foundation, said the presence of the Chinese ship in the Indian Ocean region indicated that its mission was to track the reported missile launch by India next week. “The Chinese ship is there to track various parameters of the missile that is planned to be tested by India. These include range, trajectory and speed,” Chauhan added.
As part of its mission-based deployment model, the navy continues to position its warships along critical sea lanes of communications and choke points in the region, as well as carry out aerial surveillance, as previously reported.
The Chinese activity in the Indian Ocean will only increase, and India should be focused on building its own capabilities and making more friends in the neighbourhood, former navy chief Admiral (retired) Arun Prakash said when Yuan Wang 5 visited Hambantota in August.
In 2019, a Chinese vessel that intruded into Indian waters near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was repelled by the Indian Navy. The Chinese research vessel, Shi Yan I, was spotted near Port Blair and was suspected to be carrying out an ocean survey in India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Every coastal country’s EEZ extends to 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its shores and the country has exclusive rights to all resources in the water, including oil, natural gas and fish. The Indian Navy’s stand at the time was “if you have to do anything in our EEZ, you have to notify us and take permission.”
