NON-CONTACT STEALTH NAVAL COMBAT PLATFORMS

A strong submarine force is a necessity India cannot afford to ignore. We need to be prepared for challenges which are staring at us, writes Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha (retd.)

- Shekhar Sinha

Navies world over practice non-contact warfare except when they are deployed in shore support marine-type roles or aid to civil power. These are traditional in nature and personnel are so trained. Navies are practitioners of dispersed and noncontact warfare. It affords them the advantage of “difficult to trace & destroy”.

Given the vastness of oceans, in Indian context, an adversary will be hard pressed to mark the presence of Indian Navy’s deployed combatants at sea. India’s geographical advantage affords the navy edge over any adversary in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR). Number of satellites, aircraft, other sensors and platforms, which will be required by an adversary to locate, identify and track Navy’s combatants in ocean as vast as Indian Ocean, makes it a near impossible task.

The commentators who keep pointing at vulnerability of surface ships against hypersonic weapons need to deliberate methods of protecting or winding up land-based identifiable air bases which will be most vulnerable to such attacks. It is easier for a missile to find its target over land whose locations can be ascertained even from tourist maps, than targets over sea which merges with merchant ship traffic and constitutes nearly 90 percent of total traffic.

Naval platforms virtually fall in the category of “catch me if you can”, particularly the submarines when underwater. Yes, finding a submarine at sea is like finding needle in the haystack. Stealthiest of all and deployed in dispersed locations, it is nightmare for adversaries.