The Hindu : Navy's push to modernisation plan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 03, 2003

National

National

Navy's push to modernisation plan

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI DEC. 2. The Navy is poised to add more punch to its armada with the finalisation of deals worth over Rs. 10,000 crores to purchase an aircraft carrier and naval fighter jets from Russia and advanced submarines from France. With price negotiations having been completed, the formal Government approval is awaited, the Chief of Naval Staff, Madhvendra Singh, announced.

India is also "very serious'' about purchasing American long-range maritime surveillance aircraft but negotiations are in the initial stages. "Something should hopefully emerge but it is still premature,'' he added, during his customary interaction with the media before Navy Day. On the cards are a couple of deep-sea rescue vessels though their acquisition, like those of the American planes, will take time.

With many inductions in the offing over the next four to five years, the Navy has also gone in for a recruitment overdrive. The number of sailors being enrolled has gone up from 1,300 every six months to 2,000. The officers' training academy is also "houseful."

"The situation will change with the acquisition of the aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov. The Indian Navy will also be capable of `force projection' besides exercising `sea control' in its areas of influence,'' observed Admiral Singh. He refused to commit himself on whether India is planning to lease or buy nuclear submarines and nuclear bombers along with the aircraft carrier.

With the induction of the Gorshkov, 54 months after the deal is formally signed, the Navy will be able to challenge and pummel a rival air force providing protection to enemy naval bases from a distance of 1,000 km. By being berthed west of Mumbai, the carrier's reach will extend up to Muscat. Given the gradual improvement in ties with China, senior officers refrained from providing similar projections off the eastern coast. The Gorshkov is much larger and more potent than the Navy's existing aircraft carrier — INS Viraat.

As many as four high-level delegations had visited and examined the huge aircraft carrier berthed at a Russian port for several years. Contrary to media reports, a senior Naval officer said the "fire'' on the carrier was actually a small boiler tube burst and the ship served with the Russian Northern fleet till 1995.

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