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Friday, Dec 15, 2006
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Maritime surveillance capability needs to be strengthened: Mehta

Special Correspondent

Navy plans to have rotary winged UAVs

MUMBAI: Maritime reconnaissance capability of the Indian Navy has not kept pace with the requirement, a vast area of operational responsibility stretching from the African coast to South China Sea, according to Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sureesh Mehta.

Admiral Mehta said the Navy was making use of its Tu-142 long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft but these were of old age and insufficient in number and therefore the process had begun to replace them in the next five years. He did not name any aircraft under consideration.

He was talking to reporters here during his first visit to Mumbai after taking over as Chief of the Naval Staff .

He said the Navy was augmenting the capability to some extent by seeking satellite coverage of the area and practising the use of UAVs — unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Navy had deployed the UAVs with great ingenuity to overcome the problem of their limited range, he added. A UAV controlled from a land station has a range of 110 miles but the Navy could take it to over 400 miles by passing control to different platforms including ships at sea and even other UAV. The admiral said that a plan was afoot to have rotary winged UAVs onboard helicopters for furthering the surveillance.

Since the maritime domain is so wide, the Navy was also networking its ships, aircraft and shore establishment so that all could have an up-to-date picture of the battle. Besides, within a ship, its sub-units would also be networked.

"But we are at the basic of the Network Centric Warfare and the Navy was leveraging the country's strength in the IT industry for the purpose," Admiral Mehta said. He indicated that research and development efforts were on for developing indigenous rotary wing UAV.

The Navy operates 136 warships and 39 more are at different stages of construction. These include six Scorpene submarines to be built at Mazgon Docks. The Admiral indicated that the construction work for the first submarine would start in a day or so.

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