|
|
|
|
Indian navy on the crest of a
wave
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - India's naval power projection
and maritime security have received a big boost
with the commissioning of a giant new naval base -
Indian Naval Ship (INS) Kadamba - on its Arabian
Sea coast. INS Kadamba, which is India's third
 operational naval
base after Mumbai and Vishakapatnam, is the first
to be controlled exclusively by the Indian navy.
INS Kadamba
is Phase I of the Indian
navy's ambitious US$8.13 billion Project Seabird. Situated at
Karwar, 100 kilometers south of Goa, in the southern
Indian state of Karnataka, INS Kadamba is being
described as the biggest base of its kind this
side of the Suez.
When completed, it will
be Asia's largest naval base, with the capacity to
berth more than 22 ships, including the 44,000-ton
aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov purchased from
the Russians (and renamed INS Vikramaditya), as
well as the indigenous nuclear-powered submarine,
the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV). Spread over
11,200 acres, Project Seabird will include a naval
base, an air force station, a naval armament
depot, a ship-lift system, missile silos and a
full-fledged ship repair yard. According to some
reports, some naval vessels have already begun
making use of the facility.
INS Kadamba
meets a long-standing demand by the Indian navy
for a naval base under its exclusive control.
Hitherto, the navy has had to share space with
commercial vessels at ports in Mumbai,
Vishakapatnam and Kochi, for instance. Commercial
vessels take up the bulk of space at these ports,
and often heavy commercial traffic means that
naval vessels have to wait for hours at sea.
Besides, "the proximity of merchant vessels to a
naval base is not an ideal situation from the
point of view of security", points out a retired
officer of the Indian navy.
According to
Project Seabird director general, Rear Admiral K
Mohanrao, "A base at Karwar will provide strategic
depth to India's naval capabilities. It will also
help decongest Mumbai harbor."
Lawrence
Prabhakar, associate professor at the Madras
Christian College and research fellow at the
maritime security program at the Institute for
Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore,
describes Karwar as "an ideal site for a naval
base".
Drawing attention to Karwar's
suitability as a base, former chief of naval
staff, Admiral O S Dawson, one of the architects
of Project Seabird, says, "No other place on the
western or eastern seaboards is half as valuable
as Karwar is. Half a mile into the sea, and the
water depth is there. Besides, Karwar's hilly
terrain provides excellent camouflage to ground
installations, and pens [enclosures] cut on the
rock face can conceal submarines. The extent of
the land available in and around Karwar will
enable the navy to disperse its forces, a crucial
necessity in times of an attack."
Prabhakar says Karwar's topography and
terrain provide excellent cover. "Its bays and
offshore islands provide strategic protection and
its hilly, forested hinterland provide cover from
surveillance satellites," he tells Asia Times
Online.
Prabhakar draws attention to the
significant role that Karwar, which will host
India's maritime surveillance capabilities, will
play in monitoring maritime, especially naval
traffic, in the region. He points out that the
Arabian Sea - especially the Northern Arabian Sea
- is one of the densest maritime traffic areas in
the world, with civilian and naval shipping of
various countries plying these waters.
"China's submarines, especially its
nuclear attack submarines, will frequent Gwadar [a
deep sea port in the Pakistani province of
Balochistan, which is being described as China's
'listening post' in the Persian Gulf] in the near
future. Besides monitoring Chinese naval movements
in these waters, India will have to keep an eye on
Pakistan's deployment of its newest submarines -
the new Air Independent Propulsion [AIP]
submarines, like the French Scorpene," Prabhakar
says.
"AIP submarines are the quietest
ones in the class; running deep and running
silent. The varying isothermal layers of the
Arabian Sea, owing to the warmth of the waters and
salinity, renders detecting sonar signals
extremely complicated. Hence the need to have a
geostrategic naval base in between Mumbai and
Kochi would result in better surveillance and
reconnaissance," Prabhakar says, adding that the
sea lanes of communication in the Arabian Sea
would be monitored better.
Karwar also
offers the navy several advantages over Mumbai. At
Karwar, the navy will not have to share space with
commercial vessels. Karwar does not face a problem
of silting, as does Mumbai, so it will not have to
be dredged as frequently. Since its waters are
deeper than those at Mumbai, it allows for better
anchorage. Above all, Karwar is located further
away from the Pakistani port of Karachi - Karwar
is 900 nautical miles from Karachi, while Mumbai
is 580 nautical miles away.
These
advantages and the need to put to optimum use the
facilities at Karwar have prompted some to call
for a shift of the Indian navy's western command
headquarters currently stationed in Mumbai to
Karwar. As the retired officer of the Indian navy
points out, "When the Indian navy's main
battleships will operate out of Karwar, why should
the western command be headquartered in Mumbai?"
Opponents of shifting the western command argue
that the move would be expensive and that the
western command in Mumbai is essential for the
navy's operational plans.
Project Seabird
was conceived decades ago and suffered time and
cost overruns. It received government sanction in
August 1985 and construction was to begin in
January 1986 and finish in seven years. In October
1986, then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi even laid
the foundation stone for the project. But it was
shelved thanks to a resource crunch. Work on the
project began only in 1999.
With the
commissioning of INS Kadamba, Phase I has been
completed. But the full potential of Project
Seabird will be realized only after Phases II and
III are completed. "It is these two phases which
will prove critical to the navy's plans to acquire
blue-water capabilities," argues Saikat Dutta in
the weekly newsmagazine Outlook.
Sudha Ramachandran is an
independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
All material on this
website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written
permission.
© Copyright 1999 - 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd.
|
|
Head
Office: Rm 202, Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong
Kong
Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
|
|
|
|
