Navy’s future course in focus at top meet
The Indian Navy is focused on boosting its capabilities in the Indian Ocean region and is on the verge of critical purchases, including jets and submarines.
NEW DELHI: The navy on Saturday organised the annual chiefs’ conclave to brainstorm on the service’s modernisation drive, steps to boost indigenisation and the overall future trajectory to stay operationally ready to address challenges to the country’s maritime security, officials aware of the matter said.
The conclave, held at the new Nausena Bhawan, was hosted by navy chief Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi and attended by eight former chiefs of the naval staff, the officials said, asking not to be named.
The conclave comes at a time when the navy is taking steps to be fully self-reliant by 2047, it is focused on boosting its capabilities in the vast Indian Ocean region (IOR) and is on the verge of making some critical purchases, including fighter jets and submarines.
It also came weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation three locally built combat platforms, two warships and a submarine, and said at the rare simultaneous induction that it was a significant step towards empowering the Indian Navy of the 21st century.
The development put the spotlight on the navy’s fast-paced indigenisation and how it is working on becoming fully self-reliant by 2047 when India celebrates 100 years of independence --- 60 warships are under construction at various Indian shipyards.
Also, India is all set to sign two separate deals with France for 26 new Rafale-M fighter jets for aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, and three more Scorpene-class submarines to sharpen the navy’s combat capabilities.
The deal for the Rafale-M twin-engine deck-based fighters, built for sustained combat operations at sea, is estimated to be worth around ₹50,000 crore. The Rafale-M is being imported as an interim measure to meet the navy’s requirements until India develops its own twin-engine deck-based fighter (TEDBF).
The additional Scorpene-class submarines, to be built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in Mumbai, will strengthen the country’s maritime posture in the IOR where the challenges include China’s carefully calculated power play for influence and defending the rules-based international order.
MDL has already built six Kalvari-class (Scorpene) diesel-electric attack submarines with technology transfer from the French firm, Naval Group, under a ₹23,562-crore programme called Project 75.